


Masks by Moonrise

by ambiguously



Series: Starfall [7]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dubious Consent, Enemies Forced To Work Together, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghosts, Foursome - F/M/M/M, Inappropriate Use of the Force, M/M, Multi, On the Run, Seduction to the Dark Side, Stormtrooper Jesus, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-20 11:59:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 68,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6005146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey, Finn, Poe, and General Organa are caught up in Luke Skywalker's plan to save his nephew from himself. Finn wants to learn how to live like a normal person, Rey wants her mortal enemy to stop whispering inside her head, and the First Order wants them all dead. Alliances are formed, allegiances change, and our heroes must set aside their differences before Snoke destroys their last hope and seizes control of the galaxy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SHIP ALL THE THINGS!

* * *

Chapter One

* * *

Finn woke up.

This was an unpleasant surprise.

His eyes squinted in the bright lights of the medical suite. Later, he would discover the lighting was always kept low. Right now he felt like lasers were shining into his eye sockets. His back hurt. His body hurt. His eyes hurt.

The good news was that pain meant he was still alive. Finn blinked back the light.

"Good morning," said a pleasant voice.

Finn. He had a name and it was Finn, and that voice meant he was still Finn. Not a soldier, not Eight Seven. Finn.

"Rey?"

A hand touched his arm, and he squinted again. That wasn't the hand he associated with her, nor the voice. He remembered too many clashing images, and above them all, a pretty, brave girl. The figure he focused on wasn't her. He scrambled for the name.

"Rey's not here."

"Poe?"

"That's right." His face broke into an easy grin. "We've been worried about you, my friend."

Friend. There was a word with teeth. Poe was his very first friend, the friend who'd offered him a name and a new world. And Finn's second friend....

The memories rushed in now. The snow, and the fire, and she'd been slammed into a tree, and he'd fought. He'd lost.

Terror shot through him. Around him he heard the rapid beeps of the monitors reflecting the outrage in his heart. Rey wasn't there. "He killed her, didn't he? That Force-wielding lunatic killed her!"

"No," Poe said, understanding soothing through his voice. "Finn, Rey's okay."

"She's better than okay," said another voice. Finn turned his head, and saw the Force-wielding lunatic's mother smiling sardonically. "She kicked his butt and saved yours. When she gets back, you can thank her."

"She beat him?"

"Someone had to. I never could bring myself to do it," said the General, and she patted Finn's shoulder. It hurt a little but he felt proud anyway at the way she looked at him. She glanced at Poe. "You can fill him in on what he's missed."

"I can do that. Now that he's recovering, what should we do with him?"

She shrugged. "I'll tell you the same thing I was told when I brought a couple of stragglers back with me after a fight. They followed you home. You have to feed them and keep them from messing on the floor."

"Yes, ma'am." Poe watched her go. Finn was already trying to sit up to a more dignified position, even though it ached to move. Poe helped him find the pillows.

Several thoughts competed. "I shouldn't have said lunatic. Did she just call me a pet?"

"She's called him worse. And you weren't the one she was insulting. You'll get used to her sense of humor."

"I will?"

"You are planning on staying, right? After you get better, you'd be a great asset for the Resistance." Poe put on his best smile. It turned out he had a lot of these. Finn had felt an instant camaraderie with him from the moment they met on opposite sides.

Doubt crept in. "I'm not so sure you want me staying. I worked in sanitation. Getting sent on the mission to Jakku was a promotion. I can't even fly."

"I'll teach you. You'll be a natural."

Finn laughed, which also hurt. All of it hurt. But he was alive. "Yeah. What did General Organa mean when Rey gets back?"

Poe dropped into a chair beside him. "You missed the excitement. We know where Luke Skywalker went. She and Chewbacca took the _Falcon_ and have gone after him."

"They're bringing him here?"

"That's the idea. Personally, I think she might not succeed, not if he doesn't want to come back. There's some pretty heavy stubbornness in that family, which I never said."

The General's sense of humor wasn't the only one he'd have to get used to.

* * *

Rey had many speculations about the moment she would finally come face to face with legendary Jedi Luke Skywalker. Perhaps he'd greet her formally, seeing the lightsaber in her hand and understanding she was ready to pass this back to him. Perhaps he would ask after the Resistance and his old friends, and she'd be the bearer of bad news instead of Chewbacca, who'd elected to stay with the ship. Perhaps he would answer all the questions she'd had about herself and her life and this mystical power which seemed to grow more and more inside her with every passing hour. Perhaps he'd take one look at her, think her unworthy, and command her to leave.

"Come on," he said, not taking the lightsaber. "Let's go inside and have some tea."

He turned and walked off, forcing her to follow him if she wanted any answers at all.

"If you've got a commlink, tell Chewie he should join us. Tell him it's tarine tea. It's his favorite."

Rey touched her ear. "We're going in for tea." She was aware how stupid that sounded. "Luke says it's tarine tea and you should join us." Chewbacca indicated he'd be along in a while.

Luke led her down the steep path to one of the ruins, and he ducked his head as he went inside. She followed, discovering what she had thought an abandoned church was in fact a cozy little cottage. There was a small portable stove, a comfy-looking bedroll, and a table strewn with books and notes.

He used the hand pump in the corner to rinse out three sturdy mugs while he boiled a pot of water on the stove. Rey saw the remains of small meals left forgotten in the corners of the main room. Her own living quarters took on this level of lived-in disregard when she hadn't had a visitor, and he appeared to have been alone for years.

"How long have you been here?"

"A while. It took me several years to find this planet, and longer to find this spot."

"I've been searching for you. Everyone has. The Resistance and the First Order are both looking for you." The heaviness of the past few days hit her again. "I also have bad news to bring you."

Luke rested his hand, the metal one, on the table. "The deaths on all those worlds, or the death of my best friend?" His eyes were old and sad.

"You felt it."

"The Force connects all living things. Billions died at once. I felt it. As a Jedi, I'm not supposed to say I felt it much worse when Han died, but I've never been a very good Jedi."

The horror flashed in front of her eyes again and was gone. "I was there. I'm sorry." She'd said the same thing to Luke's sister.

"Luminous beings are we," he said quietly.

"What?"

"Oh, something someone much wiser than I am told me once. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. He meant I should stop focusing on the outer forms of things and start paying attention to the inner light that binds. But I wondered later if he wasn't teaching me something else." The water boiled. Luke turned to pour it over the tea leaves as he said, "It's good for your first lesson."

"I'm not here for lessons. Sorry. I'm here to bring you home."

He concentrated on the tea steeping in the mugs. "You're not supposed to bring the water all the way to boiling. It brings out the bitterness. I'm not much good at tea, either. But it's hot and it will keep you going, and I stopped caring about the flavor a long time ago. There's your second lesson."

"On tea?"

"On listening to an old man ramble when you know he's talking about other things in his own foolish fashion."

"I told you. I'm not here for lessons."

"You didn't come for tea, either, but here we are." A moment later, the entrance darkened and Chewbacca stopped to come inside. "You're just in time."

Chewie extended his long arms and took Luke into a crushing hug. He moaned mournfully into Luke's ear. Luke patted him and said, "I'm so sorry. I should have been there. I felt it all."

Chewie took his mug of tea and slurped a long sip before complaining it was bitter.

"I can cook. You're better at making tea."

Rey watched the two old friends, accepting her own mug with silent thanks. She'd heard legends about these people, and other people she'd met over the last week. Part of her had expected impressive heroes, veterans of old wars with wisdom drooling out their ears. Instead she'd met a pair of two-bit old smugglers who'd messed up their last deal, an admittedly impressive Resistance leader who chain-smoked and made jokes so dry they crackled in her mouth, and now a doddering man who burned his tea and bickered with her new co-pilot. 

She set her mug on the table. Luminous beings, he'd said.

They were old, yes. But so were the stars. Luke and Chewbacca had just lost their dearest friend, as had the General, and worst of all, to the hands of someone they all knew and clearly still loved. Sending up protective prickles was the least of their problems. Rey had known Han Solo for less than a week and she grieved. These people had known and loved him for more than half their lives. The grief would linger.

"You know I can't go back with you," Luke said, finally taking a drink of his own tea.

Chewbacca disagreed. The General had been very clear, and he was not about to disappoint her again.

"That's not fair of either of you, and you know it. I have to finish this, Chewie. I almost have the spell together."

Rey said, "They said you were looking for the first Jedi Temple." This didn't look like a temple. She wondered if the oldest Jedi hasn't been choosy about their holy places.

"The lore said there are old teachings lost at the first Temple. I had to know." He indicated his books.

Fury and sorrow both gripped her. Here was the last Jedi, the only survivor of the last slaughter, and he'd hermited himself away from the world for books. "You abandoned the galaxy when they needed your help against the First Order so you could visit the Jedi library?"

Luke held the mug of tea in his hands. She wondered what he could possibly take from holding it this way in a hand that couldn't feel. "You're Force-sensitive. You know it. I know it. What do you know about the Dark Side?"

A black mask, and cold snow. "It's evil. All I need to know."

"Then you're going to fall." He took another drink. He asked Chewbacca, "How much does she know?" Chewie replied that she knew enough. "The Dark Side is seductive. It offers power when you want it most. It flows through you when you're angry or afraid, and can make you strong when you feel weak. It's there, waiting for you to call on it just like the Light, but once you start down that easy path, coming back is difficult. There's a turning point."

"When you kill?"

He sighed. "We all kill. Side effect of going to war. I was directly responsible for the deaths of thousands on a space station before I was twenty. The Jedi were warriors. No. When someone truly goes to the Dark Side, there's a sacrifice. They kill someone they care about. My father killed his friends and my mother. His best friend had a chance to strike him down before he became the terror he did, but wouldn't because it meant turning."

"I'm not going to kill anyone I love." Rey couldn't think of anyone she loved, honestly. She had few friends on Jakku. She had almost no memories of her family. She was fond of her new friends, but hadn't known them long enough to care more deeply.

"I nearly did once. The second time I was put to the test, I ran so I wasn't forced to kill him and he couldn't kill me and complete his fall to the Dark Side." He wasn't talking to her. Chewie bowed his head.

She still felt the dark presence in her mind. "You mean Kylo Ren."

"Is that what he's calling himself these days?"

"You don't have to hide any longer. He murdered his father. It's done." He still lived, she knew in her bones. No matter how many systems away he might be, she felt the gossamer thread between them continue to stretch without breaking.

"I haven't been hiding. I've been researching." He handed her a paper at random from the messy table. Rey couldn't read the markings. "They're old runes. Try seeing them in your mind."

She wanted to say that was daft, but his gaze was clear. Grumbling, Rey closed her eyes and reached out to the paper in her hand. She felt the stiffness of the sheet, sent her thoughts along the uneven hatch marks forming dull meaning.

Behind her eyes, she watched the words split into two.

"It's a separation," she said, blinking her eyes open and dropping the sheet. "You said it was a spell. What does it separate?"

Luke drank his tea and didn't answer. Rey listened to the hum of the stove and the small lanterns he'd strung around the room. She let herself become aware of Chewbacca's breathing, and the sound of the waves outside, and the thick blanket reaching over them here, pure neutral energy collected in an unassuming old hovel.

"I used to daydream about fixing the past," he said. "I wanted to know if I could have somehow found my father earlier and saved him from himself. The old Jedi, the first Jedi, they took a simple approach to the Dark Side. They pulled it out from someone directly, like poison from a wound. It's powerful magic, and nearly impossible. According to the stories, the working has killed every Jedi who attempted it, but when performed properly, you could turn the darkest Sith back onto the path of good. I've spent ages digging into it after I finally found the books. I'm almost there."

This made no sense to Rey. "You've been trying to learn a spell to kill yourself?"

"No, I've nearly succeeded in recreating a spell that could bring an incredibly powerful Jedi back to the Light, and I'm not leaving until I finish." He drained his mug. "I'm sorry. I didn't get your name."

"Rey."

The mug broke in Luke's metal hand.

* * *

First Order medical technology was by far the best in the galaxy. An injection of pain medication, another of antibiotic, a slapped-on and fast-sealing surgical dressing to form fresh skin over any wound, and a Stormtrooper could be sent back into battle within a quarter of an hour, ten minutes if the med droids were reprogrammed not to bother with the first injection. Hux said allowing them more recuperation time would only encourage laziness.

Therefore, Kylo was not by any means recuperating. He'd remained in his own quarters to meditate, nothing more. The pain was manageable after the anesthetic wore off, and anyone who thought that the commander of the Knights of Ren couldn't handle the same level of pain as a mere Stormtrooper would have been taught a lesson, were he not in here. Meditating.

He'd learned meditation long ago, on another planet in another life. He'd worn another name then, and he hadn't known his true potential. He'd been taught with children, far younger, whose own Force gifts made his feel weak in comparison. He'd learned strength. He'd gained power by drinking his own anger and feeding on his own seething resentment. He could stretch out his grip and seize stars. But meditation still eluded him. Annoyed with himself, he stood from the bare spot of floor where he'd tried and failed to find his own center of balance. Lord Snoke could feel his failure, naturally. No one else had to know, and he could lay the blame elsewhere.

The girl.

Obviously she was a threat to the First Order. Obviously she must be taken or destroyed, lest the untrained whelp find means to hone her natural gifts. Obviously she would be discovered, and they would battle once more, and he would be victorious now he knew her tricks.

_Come to my chamber, Kylo Ren._

Obviously Lord Snoke knew full well when Kylo's thoughts were clouded by memories of someone he couldn't defeat.

He donned his mask and strode through the corridors to Lord Snoke's chambers, enjoying the hurried spread of Stormtroopers from his path. He could touch their minds and knew not all of them respected him, but they all feared him and that would do.

As he entered the room, he saw a body slumped on the floor. His stride hesitated only a fraction of a second. The mind inside was already dead. Another step brought him close enough to see the figure was Aldin Ren, one of his subordinates in the Order. At times, Snoke would have one of his Knights brought to him privately on the pretext of some minor infraction. He'd leave the corpse to serve as a lesson to the rest. Aldin had not been a maker of mistakes, large or small, partly in fear of this very punishment. He was, or he'd been, so powerful in the Force that Kylo that had resented him, concerned for his own position and sure Lord Snoke would never waste such an asset.

The powerful asset lay dead on the floor for displeasing Snoke in some fashion. So ended the lesson.

"Yes, my Master?" He knelt, keeping his discomfort squarely behind the locks inside his mind.

"Your thoughts are clouded to me. The girl, the proto-Jedi who defeated you, she is the cause."

He winced at the reminder and kept his thoughts silent. In the very back of his mind, a voice he'd hoped to still forever whispered, _"Snoke is a fool."_ He kept the voice muffled even to himself.

"Yes. I was injured. She will not defeat me twice."

"An excuse. Have you been practicing the techniques I showed you?"

Until his muscles ached. Until his wound throbbed. Until his mind squealed. Until the voice climbed onto his shoulder and shouted in his ear: _"You've already failed!"_

"Yes. Between my other duties."

"General Hux has been given full control of this base. You are relieved of all other duties."

His head shot up as he glared at Snoke from under his mask. "I am capable of completing all my work. Master."

"You are losing focus. You completed your journey into the Dark Side. Now you must use the power you have gained. The Resistance knows the location of Luke Skywalker. The girl is involved with this, although my visions have not allowed me to see how. You will kill her and bring him to me."

"She is very powerful. She would be a good acquisition for the First Order. I could train her to your bidding."

"You could not train a Loth-cat to sleep in the sunlight, Kylo Ren."

Hot words came to his lips. He knew Snoke could feel the spike of his anger. Against his own expectation, the small voice inside him said, _"Not now. Not here. Not yet."_

The small voice was getting on his nerves.

"I could bring her to you. You could guide her as you guided me." It would be a terrible waste to kill her.

"She is confusing you. I cannot allow this. Destroy her as you have been instructed. Bring Skywalker to me. I have plans for him."

"You cannot turn him."

"I have greater plans than that, my apprentice."

The small voice was a whisper now. It reminded him that Luke Skywalker was by far the more powerful of the two of them, that Kylo had murdered Luke's best friend, that the path to the Dark Side was best painted with the blood of someone beloved, and that Luke loved him like a son.

_"Snoke will goad your uncle into killing you. He is the prize. You have always been the bait."_

None of this showed in the level of his mind where Lord Snoke could read. He kept his thoughts calm, obsequious. False.

"Yes, my Master."


	2. Chapter 2

The med droids released Finn from their care two days after the inactivity was too much to bear. "Come on. I can be up and walking now."

"You will wait," said the impassive face of the droid, and the doctor who oversaw his treat agreed.

"You need rest. We'd prefer not to release you only for you to retear those muscles. The Resistance needs healthy pilots."

But Finn wasn't a pilot. His friend who was a pilot came to visit him several times a day. "I have to make sure you're not messing on the floor," he joked, sliding into his favorite chair at Finn's bedside.

"That was only mildly funny the first time."

"Good jokes, like fine wine, become better with age."

"Didn't you tell me yesterday you only ever drink three week aged plonk?"

Pulling a smile from Poe wasn't a difficult achievement. Nevertheless, Finn enjoyed the sight every time.

The day of his release, he was greeted with a change of clothes, including the jacket he'd permanently borrowed, and an assignment to one of the bunks in the barracks. "If you're staying."

"I'm staying. I don't have anywhere else to go."

"That's not why you're staying." Poe helped him find the building, and recognize the way with landmarks. "There's the mess hall. They haven't poisoned anyone lately. Gold Barracks is for the main operations and control personnel. I've never been inside but I've heard they all sleep in their suits and everyone has a terminal in their bed."

Finn had learned to see through the bantha fodder. "No portal to hell in there?"

"We could explore and find out." Poe indicated a second building, this one slightly smaller. "VIP quarters. The General lives here in one apartment. So does the Admiral. A few others you'll meet. I have been in there. They spend a lot of nights telling stories about the old times."

Finn thought about this. "I know what the history lessons said during my training. I wasn't very good in those classes."

"They can set you straight on the details. If you're curious. Me, I know enough to think we're probably the good guys. I don't care to know what happened on the Senate floor sixty years ago to get us here." He pointed. "And here is good old Blue Barracks. We have four more buildings for the pilots. I asked that you be assigned here so I can keep an eye on you."

A lot of words went unspoken. Finn knew the people around him who knew where he came from thought he was a brainless grunt, conscripted by the First Order from birth and not bright enough to light a candle. Even Poe's gentle jibes had a soft undercurrent of explaining things to a child. He wasn't a child, though. He'd been very smart in all his exams under Captain Phasma's training, and he paid attention to things he wasn't told. Barracks B was for the elite pilots, the best of the best. Not all of them had made it home from the Starkiller mission. As they walked through the rows of beds, the empty spaces had already been cleared of personal belongings, and bare mattresses spoke of dead friends. The junior pilots would be resentful to see a raw recruit lodged in a place of honor. There would be trouble.

Poe showed him the bunk of some dead man or woman. "Here's yours. Mine's right across from you." 

"Maybe I should start in the new guy barracks. You know, the one with the stuck latrine and the bad electricity." Safe bet. Every army had one.

"You mean here?" Poe nodded towards a flickering lamp above them, and it wasn't the only one. All right, scratch that. This army had nothing but bad barracks.

"This is for pilots." He took a long look around. "The best ones, right?"

Poe opened a locker at the foot of Finn's new bed. He saw a uniform in what was surely his size, and some sheets. There was even a small frame, a few inches across. Confused, he picked it up and saw Rey's face not looking at the camera. She looked world-weary and injured, but her eyes were set in a determined stare he'd grown used to very fast.

"Security footage. You seemed to miss her. I figured it would make your spot more homey."

Finn set the photo aside and found something weird under it. He pulled up the black fabric. It looked like a pair of glareshades where they'd added extra silk to make up for the lack of see-through.

Poe saw his confusion. "It's an eye mask. You told me they made you sleep in your helmets at night. I thought maybe you'd sleep better with something like this to put on. I figured it was a lot more comfortable than a helmet."

"Thanks. You really didn't have to do all this." An emotion gripped him, and he sat heavily on his bunk. "I didn't think. I didn't know."

Poe sat next to him and patted his shoulder, mindful of the healing injury on his back. "I'm betting not a lot of people have been kind to you during your life."

"Not part of the training."

"It is here."

* * *

"You need to focus."

"I am focusing."

Rey's eyes were shut. She tried and failed to maintain her patience as a certain someone kept lobbing rocks at her, expecting her to bat them from the air with her staff. Half of them flew wide. Two had smacked her in the arm and one in the leg.

"You should be able to do this with your bare hands."

"I prefer my staff."

She'd planned to be gone from this planet by now, not playing games with someone she'd thought was a myth a few weeks ago. A rock flew by and she blocked its path, slamming it to the ground. Another followed, and another. She could almost sense their path.

"Feel the Force flowing up my arm. Feel the trajectory of the stone."

She felt the stone strike her leg. "Ow!"

"Keep trying."

Rey dropped her staff and opened her eyes. "Enough. This is silly."

"This is training."

"I didn't come here to train."

Luke's face expressed exactly what he thought of that statement. Rey shot a look to Chewbacca, but he'd buried his face in a datapad and intentionally ignored them. He must have seen a lot of Jedi training in his past. She wondered how many of them considered concussing their teachers with the nearest blunt object.

"Most of us," said Luke, picking out the thought.

"Rude."

"Shield. We've been over this. The thoughts you keep on the surface are fair game to anyone who can hear them. I try not to listen. Others won't be so polite." He sat on a boulder, wiping his neck. Clearly he was also finished for now.

She let out an annoyed sigh. "All right, that's half an hour of training. You owe me information."

This was a terrible deal, worse than getting a low payment from Plutt. Luke had agreed to go back with them as soon as his work was finished. He'd also agreed to tell Rey the information about her which he clearly knew, in exchange for her agreement to work through the initial stages of Jedi training. She didn't want Jedi training. She did want the truth.

"For half an hour? That's only worth two words."

"Make them good ones."

He folded his arms. "Ezra Bridger."

"I don't know those words. Is that a person? A planet? A ship? Am I related to him?"

"A person, not a relative as far as I know." He may or may not continue to play twenty questions. Rey had no patience for that game, either.

"Tell me."

"Go for a run. A short one. The island isn't big and you're not trained yet to leap the gaps. While you run, I want you to think about the things I taught you this morning."

She glared at Chewbacca again. He didn't even look at her. He was here to retrieve Luke, and he wasn't in a hurry. "Can't you do anything with him?"

Chewie indicated he'd spent too many years learning he couldn't, and that Rey was late for her run.

"And meanwhile," said Luke, "I'll be working on my other project."

The implication was clear. The longer she ran and pondered his teaching, the longer he'd spent looking over the Jedi spell he was researching, and the sooner they'd be off. Her destiny had brought her to him, to this place. If it also meant wearing herself out as she scaled the steep inclines of the small island over and over, so be it.

"The Force connects us all," he'd said. "It binds us. My old Master taught me that it flows between the rocks and the trees, between you and me and the ocean, and the ship. But I wasn't ready to know the further truths. It flows between stars, through the cores of planets. It binds each living thing, and once living things, and potentially living things, and systems with a life cycle humans don't understand yet. The Force connects you with your friends back on Jakku. It connects you with your past and into your future. The lives you've touched. The lives you will touch."

She heard the words echo in her head as she ran, sweat collecting in her clothes and running down her body. Connection.

Once living things. Along the shore she saw the shells of dead crabs and the tiny shells of small sea creatures she couldn't imagine. They crunched under her boots, they ground into sand, they pressed together over millions of years into stone. She felt their lives beneath her feet.

She turned the name Ezra Bridger around in her mind. She didn't know this name, couldn't place a face. Whoever he'd been, he was important enough for Luke to give her his name in exchange for her work. She was sure he wasn't alive now. The cadence of Luke's voice, and the vague prickle of energy she felt when he discussed the flow of life beyond life, these spoke to her as clearly as words. There'd been a man, and he'd died, and this was information she must know, information that connected her.

Rey let her body do the work, making another lap of the island's small circumference. The Force bound the galaxy. She reached into the center of her mind, the place where she'd found the strength to combat her most dreadful enemy.

The enemy Luke was working on even now to save.

Her feet tripped. She caught herself from falling, holding to the side of one of the ruined buildings. She was far from the _Falcon_ , far from her teacher and her friend. The next island was deceptively close. She could try the jump.

Not yet.

She ran. The Force connected everyone. That meant no matter how far she was from her friends, she could touch their spirits. Luke said he could commune with those he'd loved even after their deaths. He was still bound to them. He'd known of Han's passing before their arrival. He wanted to heal his killer.

She was connected to all of them. The Force bound her, long before she knew anything about her own destiny. She'd dreamed of this place. She'd trained herself to fly every ship she could find a training sim for. This planet was the image Ren had stolen from her mind, not anything about the Resistance, or his father. The man who'd failed to train him was training her now. The connections grew like a web.

Rey didn't want that connection. 

Last night, as she tossed and turned aboard the _Falcon_ , Rey had dreamed of a sword, one forged of sharpened steel. She couldn't see her tormentor, although she'd sensed him very near. She had to reach the sword. She could slay him with the sword. She'd spent the whole night trying and failing to take hold, and she'd woken unrested.

She stood next to the water. Rey couldn't swim, but she could remove her boots and rest her feet in the soothing sea, safe here in the shallows. Something brushed her and darted away. Her heart leapt into her mouth, before she saw silver shining in the muted sunlight under the water. She pulled her feet back up to herself, and bent over, amazed at her first sight of a fish no bigger than her hand. The fish extended a long tongue to lap an unlucky insect from the surface of the water before swimming away. Rey returned her feet to brush against the smooth sand below the surface, but the fish did not return. The cold water invigorated her after the run, and she removed enough of her clothing to splash more over her body, cleansing away the sweat. So much water. She longed to dip herself fully, and perhaps she would tonight after all her lessons.

She told herself she hadn't come to Ahch-To to learn. She would merely avail herself of some education while she was here on her mission.

Rey focused her attention, calmed her thoughts, and reached out, looking for the far away base where Finn was recovering from his injuries. She'd had no good friends on Jakku. Finn was the first person in her memory who'd seen her as anything other than an asset or a competitor. He'd come for her on the Starkiller Base because he wanted her to be safe. She hadn't needed a rescuer, but he was the first person she'd ever considered for the position of best friend.

 _"Finn? Are you all right? I'm here."_ If he could hear her. If he could know.

Across space, across stars systems, she felt another mind reach out to hers. _"You can hear me. Where have you gone?"_

She knew that presence. Shields. Luke had taught her she must learn to close her mind to others. She had natural shields better than anything he'd seen, but they did no good when she had opened her mind up to seek out her friend.

 _"I see you found your island."_ The thought overlaid with menace and the promise of destruction.

_"I am not afraid of you."_

_"I can tell when you're lying."_

Rey shut down the entrance to her mind, wished herself silent. He'd seen. His mind had crossed the galaxy to hear her. He knew where she was, could picture her in the water, half-dressed and outraged at his intrusion. She'd sensed his amusement.

Three minutes later, she burst into Luke's cottage. "We have to go."

He finished writing a line. "We will."

"I mean now. Ren just contacted me. In my head. He knows where we are." Hot embarrassment flushed through her. She'd been so foolish.

"He's far," Luke said. "We've got time. Space is big. You spent two weeks getting here, and you had a map."

Space wasn't big enough, not to keep her away from that beast. This time, her shields were up and Luke didn't hear her.

"Chewie and I are going to ready the _Falcon_. We are leaving the planet in an hour. You can walk aboard or we can carry you."

"That would make an interesting exercise. How did Ben contact you?"

"I was thinking about my friend Finn. I wanted to call to him and let him know I was okay."

"And you didn't think to use the transmitters on the _Millennium Falcon_?" His face was set in amusement rather than disappointment.

"You said everything and everyone were connected!"

"Which you've proven. You said Ben touched your mind before. He has a way in unless you learn to block him. Shields." He went back to his papers. On the stove, another pot of water had been set to boil. "Let Chewie know the water is hot if he wants to make the tea."

"One hour." Rey turned to fume off in a proper stomp. "And you owe me more information."

"Ezra left you on Jakku."

She turned back, the anger in her stomach turning to ice. "How do you know that?"

"I don't, for certain. But I know he escaped the slaughter of the rest of the Jedi school, and Jakku wasn't far from where we were located. Not everyone was accounted for, including a small girl of about your age who shared your name. It could be a coincidence, but I don't think so."

Rey sat, folding her hands in her lap. "I don't remember a Jedi school." She remembered her vision, scraps of terror, nothing more.

"You would have been about three or four years old. You weren't there long. Ezra was one of my best contacts for finding Force-sensitive youngsters and helping me bring them to the school to learn how to use their powers safely."

Horror slid through her. "The two of you kidnapped children to turn them into Jedi?"

"No. For children, we always asked their parents. When the parents said no, we left them information in case they changed their minds when their little ones threw the table across the room again."

Her memories were a blank pool. "I threw a table?"

"You didn't. Or perhaps you did. Ezra found you in an orphanage. Not a good one, I'm afraid. He paid twenty credits for you, and apparently the orphanage manager thought Ezra was adopting you for, um. Bad reasons. Ezra was offended. I'm pretty sure he paid them another visit later and turned in the operation to the New Republic authorities."

She formed a picture in her mind of a man she couldn't remember at all, someone who'd sensed her power and freed her from a life even worse than the one he'd left her to live. "Why did he leave me?"

"He went back. His ship escaped the first assault. He came back to fight. The First Order shot him out of the sky. Until you arrived here, I assumed you'd died on the ship with him."

"No." She'd been left to scrape by on a nearby world, no family, never quite enough to eat. Alive. "He put something in my head to keep me on Jakku, didn't he?"

"He'd have wanted you to stay put until he came back for you. Ezra was only half-trained by his Master, just like me. He didn't have the best control when he implanted suggestions in someone."

The pot began to boil. Rey spread her mind, carefully reaching towards Luke's without probing. "You miss him."

"Yes."

There was something under the word. "Were the two of you together?"

"The old Jedi had strong opinions about not forming attachments, but they knew people often needed someone else to get through hard times. We got through, and we stayed friends after. He was my friend, and he died."

"But your friend didn't know where I came from. Who my parents were."

"No. I'm sorry."

She'd been so close. There was more to uncover, things he hadn't told her, but the important question had been asked and answered, and she was still a blank page. "One hour." 

"I need two more days."

"You can't have them."

"Then give me one, and I'll go with you."

She almost shouted, but the truth was he wouldn't go with them unless he chose to. "One day."

"Thank you. While I'm working, you can sit over there and learn to meditate."

She'd come here believing in him. Part of her couldn't help but be in awe of the legend, nor of the not entirely unattractive older man. She'd known this was her destiny since she'd touched the handle of the lightsaber he refused to take back.

None of that changed her annoyance right now. "You should know I hate you a little."

"Now you sound like a Jedi. Go sit."

* * *

"I have her location." Lord Snoke ought to be pleased with him. "Skywalker is with her."

"All the more reason to destroy her as soon as you find them. He will be training her in the use of her powers. She will soon be able to defeat you again, even without an injury." Snoke's face was drawn into a sneer. Kylo's pride in his achievement sunk. He was the favored first of his Master, the one hand-picked above all others and leader of his own elite order.

 _"Because you were young and easily swayed by compliments. Because true Jedi training means a lifetime of hard work for no personal gain, and you chose an easier shortcut into power."_ The inner voice grew stronger each day. Only the tightest control kept the thoughts from becoming known to Snoke.

"I will find her. I will defeat her for you. I will bring you Luke Skywalker."

"Alive."

"Alive," Kylo agreed, ignoring the shouts inside his mind. He bowed and exited Snoke's chamber, ordering the nearest Stormtrooper to ensure Ren's personal ship be made ready. He returned to his own quarters, fuming and ill at ease. He'd constructed a new lightsaber, red as its sibling but lacking the elegant cracked crystal which had given his first its distinctive form. Like the new mask he wore, the replacement only emphasized the loss. He clipped the lightsaber to his belt and rested a gloved hand on the melted helmet, seeking some shred of peace.

_"He went to the Light at the end."_

"Then he was a fool."

_"Your hero. The worst monster the galaxy ever created. Even he turned back to the side of good because of the man you're intent on bringing to Snoke. Are you stronger than Vader?"_

"I will be."

The voice went silent. Kylo had no illusion it would remain still forever. He couldn't choke it, or slice it to ribbons, or stab through its heart. The voice would ebb, and come back, and whisper in his ear all the things he'd always feared were true. He'd had this problem before, but ever since he'd encountered the girl, ever since his defeat at the lost base, the presence had been a constant, unwanted companion.

He stared at the helmet. Hereditary madness was one possibility. But what did that mean for all of Vader's accomplishments? For his own? He must believe he was not merely raving. He must believe his actions were taken in the name of increasing order in the galaxy, and his own greatness.

_"You used to be smarter than that."_

He hurried from his quarters and went to his shuttle. He let his mind go slack, picking up the direction he'd felt from his brief communication with Rey. She would know he was coming. He hesitated. He was smarter than this. She knew he was coming for her and for Skywalker. She wouldn't stay in her pretty water world. She'd flee with him. They would return to the Resistance together.

Kylo would lurk near D'Qar and wait for the familiar ship to come out of hyperspace. He would capture the ship. He would kill the Wookiee for the attempt on his own life, though he'd make it a clean, quick death. He would imprison his uncle for Lord Snoke's amusement.

He'd kill the girl. He had sworn to kill the girl, and he meant to keep his word. Eventually.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

Chapter Three

* * *

"What's this?" Finn had seen plenty of tools in his life. He knew what they were for. "You said you were going to teach me to fly."

"I am. My mother was a pilot, one of the best ever. The first thing she ever taught me was that if you take care of your ship, your ship will take care of you." Poe rested his hand against the side of the X-Wing. "Before anything else, you're going to learn how to take one of these beauties apart and put one back together. If you get to do this without being shot at, so much the better."

He turned and removed a panel from the side. Finn got in closer to take a look. "I'm not much of a technician."

"You don't have to be. I think of half these parts as 'the L-shaped thing' and 'the sharp bit.' See. The L-shaped thing is getting dirty. Clean it off, and your air flow will be more efficient." He demonstrated, showing Finn which tool to use to pry it loose.

He saw another piece under the L-shaped thing. "There's something under there. Kind of dirty, too. Is it a filter or a manifold or something?"

"Circle filter. It looks like a circle, right?" Poe let Finn remove the filter. "Good eye. That can rinse off in some water. Bucket's over there."

They did not completely strip down the X-Wing. They did remove filters, gaskets, and half a dozen other pieces Finn tried to memorize by shape and Poe's increasingly funny descriptions. "The bell dong," he said ominously, passing over a large metal piece.

"I don't see it."

Poe held the piece by one corner and tapped the sheet. Finn heard a low "donnnnnng" and indeed, it looked a little like a bell.

"You know, I had to memorize the official names of every piece of equipment I maintained, the requisition numbers, and at least two potential replacement pieces. I don't think I can go to the supply depot and ask for a dong."

"You could, but you're not the supply depot head's type."

He threw the soapy sponge at Poe and missed. "I can't believe you made that joke." Finn shook his head. "I have made it vanish. That joke is gone forever."

"Harsh but fair."

Finn saw Poe straighten up instantly before he heard the slight throat-clearing behind him. He spun, aware that he'd just thrown a sponge at someone who was probably his superior officer. So stand Commander Dameron and so-new-he-didn't-have-a-rank yet Finn.

The General stood there, eyes taking in the two of them. "If you two aren't occupied, I've got a task for you."

"Just showing our new recruit the basics of maintenance and upkeep of his X-Wing, ma'am. We're ready for whatever you need."

She didn't look like she believed him, and the mess at their feet agreed with her. "Has Commander Dameron shown you the M thingy yet?"

"Not yet, ma'am," said Poe.

"Next lesson, then. Get this bird back together then come to my office. I just received a signal from the _Millennium Falcon_. Chewie says they're on their way back. We're going to rendezvous away from the base."

"Why?" asked Finn.

"Right on it, ma'am," said Poe, grabbed Finn's arm. "And this is how you put her back when you're in a hurry." As soon as the General had left, he hissed, "You don't ask your superior officers why they decided to do something."

"Sorry. I was raised not to ask questions. I thought. I don't know. I thought things were different here."

"They are. You can't. Half the people here still think you might be a First Order spy."

Finn's face went hot. He hadn't even thought about that, not since his first arrival. He thought back over his last few days out of the infirmary. Poe had been with him most of the time. Finn had thought he was being friendly, even a little flirtatious. Finn hadn't much experience with flirting but he was pretty sure the gentle teasing and smiles counted. But none of that was true. "You've been escorting me everywhere. You don't trust me, either."

"I trust you. I was there when you defected. You went through hell to bring BB-8 to the Resistance. I know you're not a spy."

"Does General Organa?"

"I think so. It helped that Captain Solo vouched for you."

"But I talked him into going onto Starkiller Base. I got him killed." She must hate him.

Poe quickly fitted the last pieces into place and shut the panel. "You didn't. He knew what he was walking into. That situation went bad when you were still in baby Stormtrooper diapers." He patted Finn's arm. "The General knows that. She's not blaming you or your friend Rey."

That reminded him. "Rey's on her way back. Did you get a chance to meet her when she was here?" The tight clench in his chest relaxed a little. Half the D'Qar base might think he was a potential spy but Rey would be happy to see him. Very happy.

"Briefly." Poe watched his face. "You really do like her, don't you?"

"You met her. She's beautiful, she's smart, and she saved my life. She's amazing."

"Then I can't wait for you to introduce us properly." The smile came, but it was a second too late.

* * *

Rey set the _Falcon_ to autopilot. "Are you sure about those coordinates?"

Chewie said he was positive, and the General had spoken with him personally.

"It's odd. Why wouldn't she want him back at the base?"

"Leia doesn't trust me," Luke said from behind them. "She's not sure what I've been up to all this time, why I didn't come back when she needed my help."

Rey had her own opinions on that matter. She was sure things would have worked out differently and better if Luke had been here to fight instead of working on some mad quest to save someone who didn't want to be saved. She kept her tongue, and her mind, to herself.

He said, "It's an intelligent move. For all she knows, I've gone full-on Dark Side, too. Better to bring me somewhere away from the people she wants to protect in case she has to kill me."

"You haven't gone Dark Side. She wouldn't kill you."

"You think not? You haven't spent much time with her, then." Luke tilted his head and led Rey back into the anteroom. "If Leia thinks it's necessary, she'll kill her own son. The fact that he's still alive tells me she believes she can change his mind."

Another argument Rey didn't intend to have. She doubted General Organa or her brother the Jedi would be capable of putting down Kylo Ren. Rey herself was certain she could, given another opportunity. She'd nearly taken the killing blow the last time. She'd felt the anger and the power surging inside herself, and if that was a little bit Dark Side, she didn't see why she couldn't harness it for the greater good.

"Everyone thinks they're working for the greater good. Don't be tempted. And use your shields."

Rey grumbled, raising her mental walls again. "Why don't they stay in place?"

"When you're trained, they will, even when you don't try. You're good at keeping people out when you want to. We'll have to work on making that part of your natural flow, like breathing."

"Stop talking like you're still going to train me. We traded. I got my information and you got to be a teacher for a while. You're about to become very busy with the Resistance, and I hear they need pilots."

"Defend," he said, and suddenly he was everywhere. The little old man became a powerful dynamo, landing pulled blows all over her. Rey belatedly fell into her defensive stance, blocking him as he whizzed through the air past her, behind her, still striking through her movements. She stopped more of his punches, then slid to the floor, tripping him. Luke fell beside her.

"That wasn't nice," she hissed, kicking him gently. He'd landed punches on her ribs, and her legs would be bruised for a while even though he'd intentionally held back.

"Your enemies won't tell you to defend yourself. They'll come after you without warning. You told me Ben can read your mind, and that he didn't kill you. He wanted to train you instead. That makes you a very interesting target. If you don't learn to protect yourself in every way available to you, he will get through and he will complete the slaughter he began when you were little."

Rey breathed heavily. This wasn't fair. "All I did was not let a little droid be taken by scavengers. That's all I meant to do."

"Really. We bought our droids from Jawas to help with my uncle's moisture farm, and the next day my family was dead. Droids will get you into trouble every time." He got to his feet first, and helped her up. He wasn't winded, and although the few blows she'd landed had been much stronger, he didn't seem at all injured.

"He's going to kill me."

"He's going to try."

"You can teach me how to stop him."

"Yes."

"Fine. We have five days until we meet General Organa. What's the next lesson?"

He lit a green blade. "I think we'll have to accelerate the lessons."

* * *

"They're not coming." He said the words out loud, although there was no one to hear him. He'd hoped for the ghost of his grandfather to join him as the ghosts of others had joined his uncle. Kylo had never seen the spirits of the departed. His old classmates at the Jedi school had claimed to, eventually, driven insane by his uncle's bizarre training.

_"You don't think you're worthy. All that time, all that ego, and you never thought you were good enough to see the ghosts."_

"Be still."

He ignored the constant presence in his head, as familiar as toothache. His mother and his uncle were too well-protected to reach with a mental probe. They'd learned the mental tricks when he'd been too small to know what fascinating secrets could be uncovered. His miserable father had no such ability, allowing Kylo access to any thoughts he'd desired to read, and to his dismay, many he didn't.

Rey's mind was shielded again. She'd had powerful blocks when he'd tried to interrogate her while menacing her with threats spoken and considered. Her regular thoughts lay open except when she remembered to raise walls against entry. She forgot often. He sensed her while she dreamt of oceans and home and sharp steel. He could even sense her in hyperspace.

There.

Rey was a pinprick of thought amidst the lonely stars, shadowing through the extra dimensions of space that allowed interstellar travel. She would drop from hyperspace soon enough, and he would find her perfect homing beacon.

_"Unless she's setting a trap for you. She's a master at traps."_

His inner voice would have no means of knowing such a thing, and was working to make him paranoid. Still, now he wondered. He was meant to capture her and the ship and his quarry. But if she'd told his uncle about their connection, Luke Skywalker would be canny enough to set his own snare.

He must be cautious. He raised his own mental shields, and waited.

* * *

They did a long-range scan of the moon's surface. Three systems away from D'Qar, this barely habitable moon circled a gas giant whose name Finn had already forgotten. He'd been permitted to come along as co-pilot. "The only way he's going to learn is to get him out there," Poe had said to the General.

"Why am I really here?" he'd asked, when she was safely back in the passenger area working. He loved the starfield before him, and he tried to follow the movements Poe made as he called out switches and dials. Anyone else would have made a better choice.

"You need the practice."

"I'm not getting any."

"True." He flipped another switch. "The controls are now with you." Poe got up from his seat and stretched. Finn wasn't going to panic. He wasn't going to crash the General's shuttle and kill them all. He was going to sit here and point the ship's nose ahead of him and freak out on his own time later.

"If you grip that any tighter, we'll have to install a new one. Calm down."

"I'm calm. I'm super calm. I'm Jedi calm." He breathed in and out. This wasn't so bad.

"You know, a lot of my previously-held opinions about Stormtroopers are starting to slide."

Finn risked a glance away to see his friend smirk. Another tease. "Another fact you didn't know about us: we're all excellent dancers. Captain Phasma insisted." Poe's laugh calmed him in a way hurtling through space did not.

"Then you'll be the hit at the next all-Resistance dance."

"Only if they do ballet."

"What's all this noise up here?" said the General, coming into the cockpit. "You are both aware we're here on a mission and not on a comedy tour. I thought I explained that during the briefing."

"Just teaching Finn here to fly. He's also apparently an excellent dancer. Ballet, for preference."

The General smirked. "Good for you, Finn. I never could get past the shoes. What's our ETA?"

"Half an hour, including the security sweep. Finn, you've had about enough flying. Can you go into the back and get my flight log? I left it in the passenger area."

Finn nodded, watching Poe flip the controls back to the pilot's seat and slip in smoothly. He recognized a 'go away for a minute' when he heard one. He was smart enough not to cock an ear to listen in behind the closed door. They were probably discussing important Resistance stuff. He'd be privy to that sort of thing once he proved himself.

The flight log was stuck on the table with the General's data pads. He wasn't about to risk a look. This was her private shuttle, the only one in the fleet without any tracking devices. Poe had clearly flown her many times before, although he said the General was a good pilot herself. "It helps her think," he'd said, that same expression of mad adoration on his face he always got when speaking about his boss when she wasn't around. Finn bet himself one meal's ration that his new best friend had a small picture of the General somewhere at his bunk.

He spent a little more time holding the flight log to allow them time to speak privately. When he'd gauged they'd been able to talk, he let himself back into the cockpit. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

She said, "Let me know when they're in range. I don't want to transmit our coordinates until we're ready to land." She went back out and closed the door.

"Did you get a good look at the table?"

"I wasn't looking."

"Not what I asked. On the table where she was working, did you notice how many cigarra butts were left in the tray."

Finn thought back, but his memory had been trained for this sort of test. "Three. One was half-smoked."

"Thanks."

"Why?"

"I just like to keep tabs on how she's doing. Better than I thought, really."

Crazy about her, and keeping track of her smoking habit. Finn kept his smile to himself. "Good talk?"

"We went over the landing plans. I'm tempted to leave you here on the shuttle, but I know you'll only sneak out to see your friend."

"True."

"I don't understand where you come from sometimes. You weren't just a soldier, you were a Stormtrooper. You were raised to serve and fight and die in a unit without question. I can't even expect you to stay on board a shuttle when you're told to. Were you the worst Stormtrooper of all time?"

"I don't know." He'd wondered about that, in the little time he'd had to think about anything during that first mad rush to escape. "We were taken as little kids, and we were taught everything the First Order wanted us to know. I guess it didn't take with me."

"I guess." Poe watched him carefully. "Don't get me wrong, but why you? I'm glad you're with us. I'm very glad you helped me escape when you did. I don't think for a second that you're a spy. You're honest and you're kind, and you're braver than you think. I don't understand why."

"I don't understand why, either. Maybe the programming was faulty." He didn't like remembering his training, not now, not knowing for sure his old team was dead. They hadn't been friends, not exactly, but he'd liked them. Something inside him wouldn't let him stay there with him. He wouldn't regret his decision. If he hadn't defected when he did, his new friend here would have been executed. Rey wouldn't have known to get BB-8 to the Resistance. Billions had died either way. There were no good answers.

The console beeped. Poe said, "There's the proximity alert. I'll do a quick sweep and touch us down. Unless you want to try landing?"

"I'll watch."

* * *

She touched down to the moon's surface with barely a wobble, setting down close by the other ship. The _Falcon_ 's controls were already second nature to her. Rey wondered how long she would be allowed to fly this ship before the extended loan came to an end. For that matter, she wasn't sure to whom she'd be returning it. Plutt had stolen it from a chain of owners who'd stolen it from Han, who'd won her in a card game. He'd left behind a not-quite-ex wife and a devastated partner, and she supposed either or both might technically own the ship now. Neither would mind if she stayed.

"We're here. How do we announce ourselves?"

"We go outside," said Luke. "Come on. It's safe for now. Try to sense it."

"I'm not a Jedi." She closed her eyes anyway. Nothing she could sense seemed harmful. She could feel the edges of other minds here, familiar. Finn. "It feels clear."

"See?" He let Chewie lower the gangplank and followed him outside. Rey hurried behind them. She stopped when they did, opposite the open hatch of the shuttle. The General waited for them outside, arms folded. Rey was relieved to see Finn with her, along with his friend.

"Chewie," said the General, voice sharp. "All clear?"

He replied that things were fine.

"You're sure?" She wasn't asking about the ship security, Rey understood. Luke was right. His sister wasn't sure he hadn't also gone dark. She'd sent her surviving best friend to find out.

Said best friend said Luke was still crazy, so nothing new there.

"Excuse me," said Luke, mildly offended. "Can't a guy be a hermit for fourteen years without people calling him crazy?"

"No," said Rey, moving past him. She'd waited too long to see Finn upright and alive. "General," she said, nodding politely as she went past her to hug her friend.

"Good to see you," she said quietly. Part of her ached, remembering the last time she'd hugged him. "Taking good care of you, are they?"

"I'm learning how to fly. I'll be a pilot before you know it."

"That's wonderful. How's it going?" She looked between them. Finn smiled positively. His friend shrugged.

"It's going," he said very quietly, and indicated the two people still staring at each other from between the ships. Rey had assumed they'd already reunited, but no. 

"You got old." The General's face wore the saddest smile Rey had ever seen. From anyone else, the statement would have been the height of rudeness. But they were twins.

"You didn't. You look just the same as the day we met."

"Your eyesight is going, too."

"I know what I see."

Finally they approached each other, hands finding one another, and foreheads touching. They stood like that for some time.

"I thought they'd talk," Finn said quietly.

"They are talking," said Poe. He took an arm each from Finn and Rey. Rey tried to shrug him off and found his grip stronger than she expected. "Come on, kids. This isn't for us." He tugged them over to stand beside the _Falcon_. "Why don't you give me the grand tour? I've never been aboard this beauty. Heard all the stories." His eyes were warm, gazing at the classic lines.

Rey looked at Luke and Leia, but they stood still, resting against each other. Chewbacca kept an eye on them. "All right. Just a quick tour."

* * *

_"Everything hurts."_

_"I know."_

_"You weren't there. You should have been there."_

_"I'm sorry."_

_"I felt it. I felt him die. Like I was cut in half, and they were both ripped away from me in a second. I keep looking down and expect to see my gut bleeding out."_

_"I know. I felt it, too."_

_"You shouldn't have left."_

_"I had to try. I found the manuscript. I've almost completed what I need. I came back to finish."_

_"It doesn't matter now."_

_"It matters to me. We can still save him."_

_"There is nothing of Ben left to save. I can see what you're planning. I know what it will cost you. Don't."_

_"I chose this path a long time ago. I chose it the moment I first saw you asking Obi-Wan for help, and I choose it again now. You have been bleeding since the day he vanished."_

_"If I lose you too, I'll never stop."_

Their heads lifted, eyes still locked. Chewie asked if they were okay. Leia could feel the stupid tears ready to come again. She really wanted another cigarra. "We're fine," she said. "Just saying hello."

* * *

He wasn't sure what to make of her. Poe had met Rey briefly in the aftermath of the battle, but her focus had been on Finn's condition and her own new mission. They'd barely spoken. He was positive she didn't remember meeting him, the way she nodded blankly in his direction before returning her attention to Finn.

"I missed you. I've already learned so much from him."

Finn's smile seemed genuine. "That's good news. You didn't even know you had those powers?"

She shook her head. "I've always been lucky and good in a fight. I thought it was just how I had to live."

"Maybe it was," Poe said, edging into the conversation. "Maybe the Jedi part helped." He had her attention for a moment, and smiled his brightest gleam. Another blank look.

"Maybe." She pointed at a control panel. "You'll like this. Chewbacca says it dampens scanners, when it's working. You can fly without being seen."

With a touch more defensiveness than necessary, Poe said, "General Organa has a cloak on her shuttle. Hers always works."

Finn looked between them, then wandered over to the panel. "Same design."

That made sense. This was Han Solo's ship. If the General had new technology, perhaps she'd shared. He met eyes with Rey again. She'd come to the same conclusion. Poe made a decision.

"You said the two of you met on Jakku? I guess that means Finn here managed to imprint on both of us like a baby fluffken."

Finn sputtered. "I did not imprint on you like a baby fluffken." He shouldered up the jacket.

Rey smirked. "A bit. You did name him. He followed us both home."

"Either of you talk about messing on the floor, and there will be trouble."

Poe shut his mouth. A quick and uncomfortable examination of the last few minutes did feel like he was marking his territory. Whatever he said just rolled off her, though, and what was he fighting her for? They were both friends with Finn. Yes, he'd missed Rey during her absence but now she was back, he'd hardly run off with her.

An explosion shook the ship. The three of them froze for less than a second before Rey grabbed Finn's hand and dashed off the ship.

Poe had enough time to blink before he ran after them.

Not three seconds later, Chewbacca crashed into him, and when a Wookiee in a hurry crashed into someone, they stayed crashed. Poe fell to the floor. "What the --- "

Another explosion came, much closer.

As he scrambled back up, General Organa boarded the _Falcon_ with her brother. Finn and Rey were right behind them. "Chewie! Get us out of here!"

He was sure he was behind events, but followed Rey to the cockpit where Chewbacca had already started the engines. Rey slid into the co-pilot's seat. "Hang on!"

Poe ran back into the passenger area where the General was strapping on a restraint. She didn't look injured. "What about your shuttle?"

"Gone." Beside her, Luke and Finn managed to get their restraints on just as the ship lurched into flight. Poe fell again.

General Organa looked at her brother. "Are you positive it's him?"

"Reach out. You tell me."

She closed her eyes. Whether she meant to take Luke's hand or not, they clasped fingers. A familiar line of pain moved over her face, the one that always came over her when her greatest failure reared his head. "How did he find us?"

The ship rocked. A near miss. Poe half-crawled over to the open panel. Finn had been right. It was the same technology that shielded Organa's shuttle. The cloak was malfunctioning. "How do I get this working?"

Finn unbuckled and joined him at the panel. He wasn't a technician. Rey had a good grasp of things like this but she was flying the ship. Poe hurried to the cockpit. "Trade places! Get that cloak working!"

Chewbacca growled something, but Poe had never understood anything he said. Rey jumped out of the pilot's chair. The Wookiee slid into it and let Poe find the co-pilot controls. He didn't have to be the best right now. The best kicked them into a roll then engaged the hyperdrive just as the ship gave the same shudder Poe knew from engaging the General's cloak.

They shot into the starfield, untraceable.

Poe breathed out.

From the passenger area, he heard a tired and somewhat amused Luke Skywalker say, "Shields."

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

_"You missed on purpose."_

Kylo had given up on silencing the inner voice. He could nearly ignore the constant stream of what he wouldn't admit were truths in a voice which sounded like his own.

"They have a cloak," he said out loud in the empty shuttle. "That only works against computers."

This was easier each time. He closed his eyes and went searching for the bright beacon of Rey's mind. There. Angry with herself. Smarting a bit from a mild rebuke from her hero. _I know how that feels,_ he told her.

Her shields slammed shut, pushing him out hard.

She would relax them again eventually.

_"You're fascinated by her. She hates you as much as anyone else does, but you're chasing her. You don't care about the mission. You're interested in finding that girl."_

"Lord Snoke," Kylo said into his transmitter. "I have made contact with the ship carrying Skywalker. I am in pursuit."

_"Of your crush."_

He frowned. Nowhere in his own mind would he ever use the term 'crush.' "What are you?"

Silence.

He hadn't missed deliberately. His hands had trembled as he'd fired. He had seen his mother and his uncle, and he'd shot away from them. His orders were to capture Luke Skywalker. Lord Snoke would love nothing more than to see Leia Organa dead. He could have shot her. He should have shot her.

His hands had twitched again. He'd missed a second time, targeting his mother's shuttle instead, then watching them all escape in the rusty old freighter he'd never rid from his own dreams.

Kylo blamed the food synthesizer on this shuttle. Outland Base was overstaffed due to the survivors from Starkiller, and couldn't spare extra supplies. The scarce meals from the capricious synthesizer were even less palatable than the usual First Order fare, and his stomach knotted after every bite. That must be the reason why he couldn't shoot straight.

_"You didn't miss because of a stomachache."_

He'd always been torn, ever since he'd first spoken to Snoke. Half of him had longed for the surety and strength of what Snoke had to offer him. He'd been fed flattery and promises, and he still wanted what he'd been promised. He wanted clarity. He wanted purpose. The voice was the last vestige of some dying place inside him, a simpering desire for the Light he'd thought to extinguish with one act of pure Dark. Lord Snoke had always said to show your true allegiance to the Dark Side was to cauterize the last of your weakness.

The voice was his weakness.

And it was growing stronger.

* * *

"He can hear her?" The General hadn't looked this way at Rey even when she'd come home bearing the news of Solo's death.

"Pretty strongly," said Luke. "You said he reached into your mind?" Rey nodded.

Poe glowered. "He does that. Reaches right in and takes what he wants from your brain."

Rey said, "I fought back. I pushed him out and I dug into his head. He hated that."

Organa said, "You're probably the first person he's met since Luke who could fight him on that level."

"It's more than that," Luke said. "None of the other students ever had that level of talent, or if they did, they were too young for me to tell, just as Rey was. Her powers are as strong as his, and the more he hones in on her mind, the more connected they are."

"I'll keep my shields up. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm counting on you. When we're ready, I want him to follow you right to us."

Finn's head tilted up from where he'd been looking away. "You're going to use Rey as bait to catch Kylo Ren?"

"Not yet."

"Bad idea."

"Good idea," said the General. "Rey, are you on board with the plan?"

"You don't have to be," said Finn. "He'll kill you. He almost killed both of us."

"But he didn't," said Luke. "And he didn't kill us back on that moon. Did you notice?"

Organa said, "I wasn't waiting around to find out." Her voice cracked. With the inner eye Rey was still working on developing, she saw the aura of power around this small woman.

"You should be the one getting trained."

Something moved out of Organa, some level of anger dissipating into the bulkheads of the ship and fading from her. Humor laced her voice again. "Me?"

Luke said, "You were the stronger one."

"And you know why that doesn't mean anything."

Finn said, "But why not? General, if you've got the Force, why can't you do this training and fix things?"

Organa looked at her brother. "Remember when we were that young?"

"Too well."

"Finn," said Organa, "it's very simple. Darth Vader was an unambitious fool. All he wanted was power. Luke says he was obsessed with his family, but all that tells me is that I'm glad he never knew about me until ten minutes before he died. Ben's even less ambitious. He thinks he wants power, but what he really wants is someone to stand in front of him every day and tell him he's smarter and stronger than everyone else. He's driven by his ego. Believe me, the Resistance has won several major successes because I could anticipate Ben's need for validation."

Rey said, "You don't want power, and you don't have an ego."

Luke laughed. This turned into a cough as his sister turned on him with a fiery glare. "Something in my throat. Sorry. I'll get some water."

Leia said, "I do, but that's not the important problem. I was raised from childhood to dedicate myself to a higher purpose. My family helped the Rebellion for as long as I can remember. I was told to give everything I had for my people, then give more. I grew up believing there was nothing more important than everyone living in freedom and harmony with one another. I believed I would martyr myself to my cause one day. If I had ever learned how to use my powers, no one would have been capable of stopping me, not even Luke. I'd have acolytes in every village on every world," her eyes danced over Poe, "loving me, descending like a holy plague in my name. I would rule the galaxy in the service of justice and light, and I would crush anyone who disagreed with a thought, and I would never once consider that it wasn't right."

She coughed once, and it was the dry cough of a woman who smoked too much because she refused to cry where anyone could see. "I've thought about this. It's much better this way."

Rey imagined the General declaring herself the new Empress, imagined her sweeping the galaxy under her dark gown. This tiny, powerful woman could have done it, if she'd had a mind to. She'd actively chosen against that destiny. Her son had embraced it. "That's what Kylo Ren thinks he wants."

"Why are we capturing him? He's killed hundreds if not thousands of people. And if he didn't destroy the Hosnian system, he sure as hell didn't stop them." Finn's arms were folded. He hadn't forgotten his injuries, and a quick look at Poe said he had been wondering the same thing but wasn't about to ask his boss.

Luke looked at his sister. "Thirty-three thousand, five hundred sixty one. Are you still keeping count?"

The General shook her head. "I stopped after the first hundred thousand." She looked at Finn, and Rey expected her anger, but found none. "Finn, what was the total complement of troops on Starkiller Base when Commander Dameron blew it up?"

He swallowed. "That's different."

"You were a Stormtrooper. We've all killed people, by weapon or by proxy. Luke says we can capture Ben and save him, and I believe him."

Rey didn't, but she kept the thought to herself.

* * *

Finn wasn't sure where they were going.

"It's a safe place," was all Poe had said, sending a coded transmission to D'Qar to let them know the General was safe.

"I thought we had to get Luke back to the Resistance."

"I don't know what their plan is. Do you think he wants to go?" They both gave a quick look into the passenger area, but Luke was deep in thought over some disintegrating book. Finn's recollection of the history tapes told him there sat the man who'd personally blown up one Death Star, and who'd killed both Darth Vader and the Emperor on the second. Finn was expecting a great military leader, on par with his sister, and a mighty wizard soaked in power. Instead, the legendary Jedi seemed for all the world to be a sarcastic bookworm prone to dropping crumbs in his beard as he translated old languages onto scattered bits of paper.

Rey liked him, and had agreed to work on some of her basic movement training while he worked. Finn kept wondering if she'd found the right guy.

She was very good, he thought to himself, no longer thinking about weird old men. He'd noticed she was gorgeous the moment they'd met, and he'd appreciated the way she fit into the hot air around herself, gliding easily through each step. Even in the short time since then, something had changed inside her, something powerful, maybe even dangerous.

Could be the Force was why he couldn't think right when she was around, was why everything in his vicinity narrowed to keeping her safe, making her happy. The Force whammy, Poe called it, when someone powerful in the art made others bow to their will. Finn had witnessed Ren using the power during interrogations. This seemed very different, felt very different. Rey would never goad him into following her or helping her. But he knew he would, any time.

"No drooling on the control panel." Poe's voice snapped him back to reality.

"What? No. I was daydreaming. Sorry."

"I know what you were daydreaming about. Eyes up front, soldier. You want to learn to fly, you can't be distracted by a pretty face."

"I wasn't."

"Right. Okay, this is the computer for controlling the hyperspace jumps. You have to run the calculations every time, or you'll wind up jumping through a star."

"You took off without running them."

Poe grinned. "So I did. When you're better at this, I'll tell you the short cut for calculating the quick hops in your head."

The lesson stretched out for some time, and behind them, so did Rey's. The evening meal had been quick rations from the _Falcon_ 's stores, and with that fading behind them, Finn found himself nodding off.

"Are there bunks anywhere?"

"A few," said Rey, clearly glad for an excuse to stop stretching. "General, you should take the guest quarters."

"I think I left a hairbrush and some clothes in there the last time I stayed over. Luke, you need sleep, and we should talk. Come on."

"I've got to work on this."

"Bring it with you." She hefted a book in one hand and took his arm in the other. "Good night."

Finn watched them go to the guest cabin. He hadn't expected that. "Does that seem weird to anyone else?"

Chewbacca said something, which he didn't understand, and went to his own cabin. He pointedly closed the door behind him.

Rey sighed. "It's fine. Anyway, Chewbacca snores and Luke spends half the night mumbling through meditations. We're better off bunking together."

Poe said, "We should set a watch in case something happens. I'll take the first one. You two get some sleep. I can wake you when it's your turn."

Rey went to object but yawned instead. "Fine." Finn caught the look Poe gave him as he followed Rey off to her cabin, but he couldn't quite read it.

Much like the Resistance, the Stormtroopers had never divided their barracks by gender. He may have rarely seen their faces but he knew many of his colleagues had been women. He had no real reason for his hands to grow cold as the door closed behind them, or for his heart to race as she took off her boots before sitting on the bunk she'd obviously been sleeping in these past few weeks. He hung up his jacket and took off his own boots, the nice ones that almost fit from the Resistance supply.

"Sleep," said Finn, but he was wide awake now, climbing into the opposite bunk as she extinguished the light. He could blame the unusual arrangements: he still wasn't accustomed to sleeping without his helmet on droning softly into his ears, he didn't have the eye mask, he was used to sleeping in a barracks rather than a small room. None of those were the reason his heart pounded with nervous energy now.

"You know this is the first time we've been alone in weeks?"

He'd noticed. "You've been busy. Saving the galaxy. Jedi training. Flying into uncharted areas on mad quests for legendary figures from the last war."

"I know. I try to remind myself that less than a month ago, all I had to worry about was if Plutt was going to short me payment again."

"Less than a month ago, I was finishing up my last pre-training before I was allowed out on a mission, and having to deal with the drains on level nine."

"This is better," she said.

"Much."

"Finn?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm cold."

He thought about this, heart racing in the darkness. She was strong, and literal, and she might be asking for another blanket. But she might not. "Do you want me over there to help keep you warm?"

"Yes."

* * *

"I've got the last part of the working sorted out."

Leia sat on the bunk watching him. Luke had never carried an extra ounce on his frame, and years in exile had made him even thinner. He'd always driven himself, and now he was driving himself over a cliff where she couldn't follow.

She tried again. "Great. I'm very proud. You always said there was a chance you could have found this spell and saved Vader. Go back in time and tell yourself you did it, and have some peace. Let this go."

"I gave everything I had to save our father. I won't do less for our son. This is the only way I can think of to bring him home."

"Then he doesn't come home." The vicious, traitorous tears edged at her eyes. She'd kill for something to do with her hands. "I thought he could be saved. Luke, I sent Han to save him. You know what happened." Everything was raw again. "You say you can talk to ghosts. You saw Obi-Wan and the others." She hadn't dared ask, not in front of the kids, not even in front of Chewie. "Have you seen him?"

Luke closed the book. He rested his hands on the cover. "No. I've opened my mind as far as I've dared. I know in my soul that Han is out there, but I can't find him. I hoped he'd come to you."

"I never could see any of them, not since I was very little." A childhood memory returned to her from time to time: nightly visits from a beautiful woman with the saddest smile. She'd never spoken, but Leia remembered feeling so much love from her. When she grew out of her crib, the visions ended.

"You'd know."

"I don't regret my decision not to learn how to use the Force. You know I'm right. But sometimes I have to wonder, if I had, would I have been able to see what was going on with Ben? Could I have stopped him before he went away with Snoke?"

"I didn't see it, and I was with him every day. We can't go back and fix what happened back then, Leia. We can only try to fix what's left now."

"You are planning your own annihilation. You can tell the rest it means your death, and don't think I'm all right with that, either. But if you succeed, you'll wipe out your own soul. You won't be one of those ghosts, you won't be a part of the Force. You'll be utterly gone." She couldn't imagine. The wars she'd fought tore at her. The losses she'd endured robbed her of sleep. But she'd always known, somehow, that they all went on. Every living thing flowed back into the Force after its death. Some beings could even hold onto who and what they'd been, if they were strong, if they were consumed by the Light. Luke wouldn't. He would cease in every way, powering this one last working with all of himself in order to cleanse the shadow from another's soul. It was selfless and horrible.

"Look on the bright side. I might mess up, and Ben can murder us all."

"You are insufferable sometimes."

"That's why you love me."

"I love you for a lot of reasons, and because of them, I put up with you when you're insufferable. Just like you put up with me when I'm being selfish because all I want is to have you back home."

"I'm here now."

She wanted a smoke, and she wanted to scream. She settled for patting the bunk beside her. Luke sat down, and Leia kissed his furry cheek. "I don't like the beard."

He looked offended. "Really? I think it makes me look distinguished."

"You're wrong." She pulled his face forward and kissed him properly. He didn't respond, and she stopped. "I've missed you. We both missed you so much it hurt. You said I've been bleeding since Ben left, but you're wrong. I've been bleeding since you did."

"I had to go. He never would have had the childhood he deserved with me there."

"Looking back, I don't believe that at all. I think if the three of us had raised him together, we would have been able to give him what he needed."

"Which makes what happened my fault again. I have to fix this."

He never changed. She'd met her twin when they were nineteen, and he was still the same idealistic idiot today. He'd gone off to save Darth Vader against all logic, and he was going off now to save Kylo Ren or whatever name Ben was calling himself. Luke was one of the two most frustrating men she'd ever met.

"Hold me tonight."

They'd had a great deal of sex in this cabin, just the two of them and with Han, and the boys had taken plenty of journeys together in the _Millennium Falcon_ without her. Their first time, Luke's very first, had been here in this room. She remembered that night with perfect clarity: the unsurprising truths and the delighted explorations, and the passionate joy. But all that was long, long ago.

Tonight was about comfort, and the touch of a beloved mind, and reaching out into the void together, hoping to hear an echo and join three spirits for a short time instead of merely two lonely bodies. Neither had taken a lover in ages. Leia had too much work to do, and Luke had been alone for a long time. His body had aged, and hers had grown harder. Leia expected discomfort, and she expected awkwardness. Instead, he slid into her mind and into her body as if the years between them were only bad dreams.

 _"I've missed you."_ She couldn't tell whose thought spoke. She couldn't tell which one ached for all they'd lost. She held him in her arms and in her mental shadow, and he clutched to her, mouthing "I'm sorry" and "I love you" into her cheek as they moved together.

The echo never came.

* * *

Rey woke early. The bunk fit two people comfortably unless one of them was half-sprawled over the other. He'd curled against her in the night, and now he slept with a sweet rise and fall of breath. Finn's kisses had been enthusiastic and utterly inexperienced, which was fine. She'd missed kissing. Guiding him through how to press against her mouth had been enough to keep her warm during the cool ship's night.

It had also been enough to push him over his own edge before they could even consider any other activities. They'd never undressed, which meant her poor friend lay sound asleep in what was going to be an uncomfortably sticky mess in his trousers when he woke. She'd kissed away his embarrassment last night. This morning would be a different matter. There had to be some spare clothes around here somewhere.

That she was considering the details of clothing and hoping for a quick shower told her she was well and truly awake now. She kissed Finn's sleeping cheek and climbed out of the bunk.

The other bunk was empty. Poe had never come to wake one of them for the next watch, unless she'd really woken early.

She let herself out of the cabin. In the passenger section, Luke already was back at the table with his papers and a steaming mug. "It's caf if you want some," he said without bothering to look over at her.

"Thanks." She went to the galley, where a big pot brewed, and poured herself another mug. The flavor was as bitter as his tea. "Did you get any sleep?"

"No." He said nothing else, and she didn't pry. Her murky dreams had been invaded by her unwanted pursuer, leaving her restless.

She made her way to the cockpit. Chewbacca was back in the pilot's seat. He said Poe had woken him and gone into his bunk for some sleep.

"He was supposed to wake one of us. Sorry."

Chewie didn't answer. He had a mug of something that didn't smell like the burned caf, which he sipped with a tired slump while Rey checked their ETA. Poe had set the course for this run, making small, almost random jumps to avoid pursuit. He'd said it was a safe place.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?"

He pulled out a flipbook of star charts. Very old-fashioned, Rey thought, then thought again. A computer could be mined for information. A book of charts, especially one not marked with the planned route, couldn't be seen from afar or used later to track. Chewbacca found the chart he wanted and pointed to it.

"Yavin IV? What's there?"

Chewie said there'd been an old Rebellion outpost there back in the day. Which Ben knew about.

"You keep calling him that. You all do. I wish you'd stop."

He replied she should know how people form attachments. To the two humans out there, and to him, the monster who haunted her dreams would always be a toddler who refused to wear his clothes for weeks on end.

"I can't picture it."

Chewie said he couldn't forget it. Ben had been a handful as a child, sent to learn with Luke as much to contain his powers as learn to use them. He'd run away from school for several days when he'd discovered who his grandfather was. When he ran away the second time, the family had been worried about a missing boy. His parents would never see the man who was the scourge of the galaxy. They saw a runaway child they could bring home.

Rey had the scourge peeping into her mind. She knew they were wrong, and she could only hope Chewbacca knew that as well.

* * *

Poe rolled out of his borrowed bunk way too early. His door slid open just as the General exited the guest cabin, hair neatly in place and looking fresh from a shower. She was calmer this morning than he recalled from the last several weeks. Being in her brother's presence helped. Guess it had been a good talk.

She smiled as Luke handed her a mug. "Thanks. Boiled it in a boot again?"

"The only way you'll take it."

She laughed. It was good to hear General Organa laugh.

"Commander, when are we arriving at your destination?"

"I've set the course to get there around 1000 standard. I'm pretty sure we evaded any pursuers about three jumps ago." He wasn't taking any chances.

"Good."

"Rey's mental shields are down," Luke said conversationally. "She can't maintain them when she's sleeping. We're in exactly the same position we were yesterday." He turned another page.

Not for the first time, Poe very quietly wondered to himself why they didn't send Rey away in another shuttle, or drop her somewhere.

"Wake up your friend," said the General. "We're not in the same position as before. Today we have a plan."

Poe knocked on the other cabin door, then opened it without waiting for an answer. If he was going to see the pair of them wrapped up together, so be it. But Finn was alone. "Hey," Poe said, shaking his shoulder. He always slept deeply in the barracks, too. Poe wasn't a fan of the regulation bunks but Finn swore they were far more comfortable than what he'd used to sleep in. These bunks on the _Falcon_ were practically luxury.

"Mm?" Finn rolled, eyes blinking in the low light. 

"Time to rise and shine."

Finn still had his clothes on, Poe noticed. He'd expected a pile of discarded clothing. The other bunk hadn't been slept in, this was true, but otherwise he saw no signs of anything else.

"Where's Rey?"

"Already awake. You're the last one to get up."

That got him upright in a hurry. He worried about looking bad in front of the General. He didn't want to be the one they said was too lazy, was just there because someone else vouched for him. His need to prove himself was endearing. Poe resisted petting his head, not only because he was sure Finn would deck him.

Finn winced as he stood. "Are there showers?"

"Pretty sure." Poe wanted to say more, to ask more. Instead he said, "Come on. Get a shower and some caf, and we can make our plans to defeat the Dork Lord of the Sith."

Finn laughed. He had a good laugh, too.

* * *

Luke's mind had focused, at long last.

For years, he'd been consumed by guilt. He should have known what was happening under his nose. He should have seen the signs that Ben was being seduced to the Dark Side. He should have chased after Ben faster when he'd disappeared, should have followed more leads during that long, awful year when they all still believed he'd been abducted and his mind was eerily silent. Luke should have been there the one day he could have prevented the deaths of his students. He'd returned too late, and he'd felt the killing rage inside Ben's mind. He knew instantly he was meant to be Ben's sacrifice, the beloved death intended to push him forever over the ledge. Luke had left a single message inside R2 and he'd run away. He wouldn't fight the boy, and he wouldn't allow himself to be used to complete his child's fall.

His own quest had appeared impossible from the outset. A mythical temple? A spell that only existed in half-forgotten legends? If the possibility was real, surely Obi-Wan would have tried this long ago to save Anakin Skywalker from himself. 

Luke hadn't believed, and he'd gone anyway, abandoning home forever, knowing as sure as his visions were true that he would never again be with the two people he loved most. He'd fought, and he'd learned, and he'd looked, and even finding the temple and excavating the writings whispered his folly to him in his own thoughts.

He had no choice. Should Luke return without this one impossible chance, Ben would strike him down. He thought, he hoped, he prayed his beloved child wasn't yet mad enough to go after his parents.

Leia had bled when she felt Han's death and Ben's fall. Luke had shattered.

He'd flung himself back into the work, not sleeping, drinking pot after pot of strong tea, words crawling slowly out of crumbling pages, and still he heard the gibbering fear mutter that he was too late, that he'd wasted his life and everyone's lives on a useless gamble.

Rey had come, and he'd felt the power in her, and he'd known her name. Not all was lost. Not all the students were dead, and Ben hadn't been able to bring himself to kill her even now. She was a key. Her destiny surrounded her like the corona of a sun. She was hope in the midst of Luke's despair, and she'd brought him back to Leia, who had always been the brightest beacon in his life.

Between the surety of Rey's promise, and the flame he'd always felt blazing from his sister, Luke found his balance.

He said to the boys, "I am going to teach you the basics of shielding your thoughts. It won't work for long, and if Ben manages to get close to you, it won't work at all. He can't get past a strong shield, though he can read surface thoughts. Finn, you've got natural shields, which can help but won't be good enough to save you."

"I do? They won't?"

Luke considered saying nothing. He would never have a chance to work with Finn and find out his capabilities. It might be kinder not to let him know. But they didn't have time for kindness. "You have some Force ability. It might be why you broke free of your Stormtrooper indoctrination so easily. You should be able to shield your thoughts once you learn how. You should have fast reflexes. I don't know what you'll be able to do and we don't have time left to discover. You're on your own, and I'm sorry."

He turned to the others. "I will talk to each of you individually about your role. It's the only way to keep the full plan secret."

Poe said, "You really think he's tracking us?"

"We're sure," said Leia. "We're counting on it. The weakness your enemy doesn't know is a weakness is your best advantage."

She was separating herself out again, Luke thought. She knew what was going to happen, and she was preparing for the worst. Leia had her blaster with her, and she had spent the entire trip clearing her mind of even the fraction of the thought. Luke could read her more deeply than she could hide. If this failed, if Luke failed, Leia would shoot Ben herself.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

* * *

"Explain your delay," said Snoke over the communicator.

"I have tracked Skywalker's course. I believe they are headed to Yavin IV. There's an old Rebel base where they'll go to ground. I will capture Skywalker as you ordered."

"He is no longer alone. You must kill all his companions. If you don't have the stomach for it, fire on them from above." Lord Snoke's tone was sneering.

"I will attempt to capture General Organa. She's a valuable military asset." He could feel the voice behind his eyes, the traitorous words in his ears. _"You don't want to kill your mother."_

"You are not following instructions, Kylo Ren. You cannot let your feelings cloud your judgement at this hour. Kill her now and the Resistance will end. You will bring order to the galaxy in one blow. Destroy her and the rest, and bring me Skywalker. Don't disappoint me again."

The transmission ended. Kylo punched the panel until it broke. He'd had enough of this. Lord Snoke would risk their entire cause just to taunt his apprentice with his own weakness. _"He's a fool,"_ agreed his inner voice. _"He's playing with you again. If you fail to kill Leia and the rest, he'll use it as proof you're unworthy and make you grovel. If you succeed, Luke will kill you out of vengeance, and he'll become the asset Snoke really wants."_

The clarity of the voice shocked him. "That's not his plan."

_"That's exactly his plan. He'll already have sent backups to meet you. He is counting on you to fail."_

This time he hit the communications console with his lightsaber. He wished the destruction made him feel better.

* * *

"Set us down close to the base," said the General, leaning over the command console.

"Ma'am, I planned on taking us towards the colony. There's a spaceport where we won't be as obvious." Poe looked unhappy. Finn had to wonder if that was his Force powers picking up his friend's discomfort, but no. The frown was right there on his face.

"There will be people in the colony."

"Yes. We can blend in."

"We're expecting an attack. Do you really want to bring that kind of damage down on them?" She patted his shoulder. "You can go home after. If this works, we'll stay to celebrate. Your favorite bar, I'll buy the first five rounds. Go towards the old base."

Luke stood with Finn behind the pilot's chair. "I haven't seen this planet in too long. I don't think any of you were born yet the last time we landed here in this ship."

"That was a long time ago," the General said.

Finn left them in the cockpit and made his way into the back, closing the door behind him. Luke had asked Rey to go through more of her lessons. Her eyes were closed and her fingers moved in an intricate pattern. She barely breathed, focusing on some inner landscape he dared not see.

He hadn't been told much of his part in the plan. Another piece of bait, Luke had said, upon hearing the story of Finn's escape and how angry Ren had become at him. Ren knew his mind, knew him enough to see clearly that he was the same defecting Stormtrooper he'd first encountered in the village on Jakku. Give Ren enough targets, and his focus would be lost. Luke could do whatever he planned to do.

Distraction was key.

Rey was distracting. She sat quietly, playing in her mind with powers she'd only just discovered. She hadn't wanted to learn and now she was working as hard as she could. Finn didn't have premonitions, but he had a terrible feeling about the immediate future. The others knew things, or expected things, and none of them were happy.

Finn himself was happy. He'd found a home among these people, when he had no expectation to find even trust. Not a one thought he was a danger because of where he came from. He had friends, and one of them clearly liked him back in a more than friendly fashion. Stormtrooper training had included a rudimentary course in body needs and reminded them that while physical contact for the release of tension was permitted, excessive fraternizing was firmly discouraged. Finn had tried striking up friendships. He hadn't done much else. If he was going to make this a better relationship, he'd need advice. He wondered if Poe would be willing to talk him through how not to mess things up.

"You've got to shield better," said Rey. "You're thinking very loudly."

"Does it help that I was thinking about you?"

"No. You're distracting. I have to focus." Her eyes opened. "We're about to embark on a dangerous mission. We can talk about other things when we've finished."

"You know what the plan is, don't you?"

"I know enough."

"What are we doing here, Rey? Why aren't we taking Luke back to D'Qar? If we're trying to draw out Kylo Ren for an attack, why do I keep getting the feeling he's not the one everyone expects to die?"

"He isn't." She cast a look at the closed cockpit door. "Luke's going to make a sacrifice play to bring Ren back to the Light. General Organa knows what's happening, and I'm sure she's been trying to talk him out of it."

"That's crazy. We need Luke to fight on our side. You're not trained yet. We can't lose him."

"None of that matters to him."

"Then stop him."

Rey got to her feet. "I can't fight them both, Finn. I have to confront Kylo Ren. I can't fight with Luke Skywalker at the same time. I don't know how. I don't have a better plan, other than to run."

"Then we'll run."

"And wherever I run, he'll find me. He's in my head. He can hear my dreams and see through my eyes, and I'm scared." Her voice didn't shake. Not an inch of her trembled. He could feel the fear regardless. Worry about Luke forgotten, Finn immediately took her into a hug.

"We'll stay," he said. "We'll fight him together. I wanted a rematch anyway."

He heard a cough behind him. He let go of Rey and turned. Poe said, "We're landing. Strap in. Luke's taking us in. He's flown here before." He looked at Rey. "He says it's time to drop your shields."

* * *

Yavin IV hung before him like a green jewel. He had sent a text-only communication to Lord Snoke informing him of his arrival. The reply was terse: "Stand by for reinforcements." He didn't need reinforcements. He needed to know that his Master trusted him to complete his task.

He landed at a safe distance from the old Rebel base. He'd never visited this moon, knowing it only from stories. His parents had met aboard the first Death Star, and they had fled here together. Here was the great stand of the Rebellion and the destruction of the Emperor's jewel. He knew the tales, although unlike most of the children who'd grown up hearing them, he also knew the humanity and fallibility of the heroes.

Kylo didn't dare touch Rey's mind openly now. She'd dropped the mental barriers between them, distracted by her friends or her teacher. He could follow her across the stars, flying his ship blindfolded.

_"You have it bad for her."_

He ignored the voice.

His mask gave him readings from around the jungle where he made his way. Lifeforms abounded here, covering the old Rebels from easy scans. The thick, hot air choked him. She'd fled here before him, and Snoke ordered him to strike her down on this verdant soil. Such a waste, when he could convert her, turn her to his cause, mold and shape her into a perfect weapon under his careful education.

_"You have it really bad."_

He found the clearing, not far from the decrepit old hangar where they'd have stowed the ship. His ship, by right of inheritance, but he'd let that go. He wasn't here for the old freighter. He was here for the people who waited in the clearing. His mother and his uncle stood to one side, speaking quietly to each other. Chewbacca stood at another side, keeping watch. The girl knelt in the middle, striking tinder for a small fire. 

The scene was quaint enough to make him vomit.

First, he would take out the Wookiee's bowcaster. His side still ached under the healing skin. He'd have to take out Chewbacca at the same time.

_"You don't want to do it. You remember all the times he played with you when you were little. You remember how he'd let you sit on his lap to reach the controls of the ship, even before your father would."_

He would kill the Wookiee, and he'd make the chop clean. His Master had ordered the deaths of his mother and the girl, but Kylo knew the order had been given in haste. They were both too valuable to destroy. He would take the three humans prisoner and return to Snoke before the backup troops could arrive.

There had been others back on that moon.

He spread his mind and felt the tingle of two more minds hiding within the foliage. Commander Dameron and the traitorous FN-2187. Of course. R2-D2 was probably here as well, and any minute, Threepio would wander out of the shrubbery whining about his servos. A trap.

Kylo lit his lightsaber as he leapt into the clearing. Before he could swing at Chewbacca, his swing was blocked by a blue lightsaber, another inheritance denied. Rey glared at him from the other side of her glowing blade.

"Hi."

He kicked her back, but she rolled with the blow and landed on her feet. Around them, the two lurkers in the bushes burst through with blasters. His mother had another out. Chewbacca aimed his weapon directly at Kylo's head this time.

Kylo cast out his power, lifting FN-2187 and throwing him into Dameron. He made a second run at Chewbacca, but was held back by a rain of blows from Rey. Worse, he felt his whole body constrict, felt a powerful squeeze from the Force holding him in place. His mother had performed this trick from time to time when he'd been small, but this wasn't her magic.

"Drop your lightsaber." His uncle's voice was mild, conversational, as if they hadn't all those deaths between them, as if Kylo was still a little boy. The lightsaber fell from his hand. "Rey, take his mask."

He felt the strong brush of Rey's mind as she pulled off his helmet, and her thrilled shock at the still-healing injury on his face.

"We need to talk," said his mother.

_"You need to listen."_

He twitched. The hated voice in his head was as clear as another person standing directly beside him. His eyes darted to emptiness and back. His uncle's grip didn't change, although his gaze followed Kylo's. His face softened. "We've been looking for you."

"You certainly ran away enough," Kylo spat angrily.

Luke said, "Ben, you've never been able to see Force ghosts, have you?"

"Your hallucinations again? I am doing the galaxy a favor by ending you."

"Luke?" His mother's blaster lowered to her side.

"Listen."

_"You're afraid they're going to kill you. They won't. They couldn't. But you have to listen to them."_

Kylo twisted, trying to break free of the invisible grip. His mother was already distracted. All he must do was release the grip. He could bring his lightsaber to his hand. He could strike down Luke as he should have done fourteen years ago. He could force his mother to see the reason of the First Order. He could….

 _"I can hear you,"_ Rey's voice said in his mind.

 _"Free me."_ He sent the compulsion as strong as he dared. He felt the grip around him strengthen.

Luke said, "Chewie, it's time."

Chewbacca, then. It made sense. He'd been so pleased to fire his bolt before. A quick execution while he was immobile, and the Resistance's problems were solved.

Chewbacca holstered his bowcaster and strode across the clearing. In a moment, he lifted Leia in his strong arms.

"Put me down!"

Dameron pulled his blaster on Chewie. "Drop her!" His gun was tugged from his grip. He glared at Rey.

Luke said, "If this doesn't work, he'll slaughter us all. You have to live, Leia. I'm sorry. Chewie, go."

Mother's outrage slammed them all with the force of a physical blow, but her powers were untrained, as strong as she was. He felt her mind retreating into the jungle, haranguing and entreating Chewbacca to let her free.

"Rey, take him," said Luke. He felt the bonds around him slipping, felt Rey's unsure powers grasp him as Luke let go.

 _"Release me,"_ he ordered her, slamming the command into her unprotected mind. Instantly, the pressure on him ceased. 

Kylo dropped to the ground and rolled for his lightsaber, igniting it and sweeping around. Rey was slow this time, missing the block. Only a fall saved her head. Without Chewbacca there, she and Luke were the dual threats. He could take her, but a blaster shot from the ex-Stormtrooper distracted him. He whirled, casting out his powers to block more bolts. Too many sources, and his uncle was chanting something. An unpleasant tingle shot through Kylo's body, as though he'd touched a live wire.

Another laser shot rang out, this one from above. The reinforcements had arrived, and were firing on their position. In an instant, Luke had lit his lightsaber and deflected the next volley. Kylo's body still quivered, recovering from whatever had happened. He took a moment to breathe, and to note that his uncle's reflexes were thought-fast.

Capture would not be possible. That left only one option. Before Kylo could jump, another barrage of fire spat between them, and he was forced back.

"Scatter!" ordered Dameron. His thoughts were bare: protect Luke and protect the two younger humans under his charge. He piled into Luke and forced him in front of him. "Go!"

"It's too soon! We have to stay!" Another blast from above cut him off, and the rest broke for cover. Above them, the _Falcon_ roared away. His mother would be furious.

_"She's never going to forgive either of them."_

The voice stood next to him. Kylo couldn't see, but now he knew.

"Stay away from me. Your time is over. I saw to it. Stop whispering your lies into my ears and be gone."

 _"I will always be here with you, Ben,"_ said his father.

Kylo screamed and brandished his lightsaber, but he only cut through air. He lashed out with his powers. "Be gone!"

This was fruitless. He couldn't kill the man twice. His true quarry was escaping. He'd lost the chance to seize his mother. He wouldn't fail with Luke and Rey. He snatched his mask and headed off in the same direction where they'd run.

From behind him, he heard the voice shout, _"And get a haircut!"_

* * *

"We can't leave now," Luke said, and forced himself to a stop. Rey had no choice but to stay back with him.

"Sir," said Poe, "we have to go. Those ships will be landing any second and the area will be crawling with Stormtroopers. I can get us safely to the colony. I have friends there. We can get you away."

"Then go. Take these two and get them to a ship, and leave. I'm staying."

"You can't." Rey wouldn't let her voice tremble. The plan had failed, she had failed, but given the choice of failing him or watching him die, Rey wouldn't let herself feel bad. Luke was worth a hundred of Kylo Ren. "Go with us. You can try again later."

"He won't let us trap him again a second time. He's close now. I can do this here."

Finn's head turned, marking the position of the landers, and the sounds of pursuit. "Unless you can do whatever you're going to do in about five seconds, we're leaving."

Luke sighed. "Back to the Massassi Temple, then. The old base."

Poe said, "That's exactly where they'll look for us."

"I know. You three can go to the colony."

Rey shook her head. "Poe, which way is the base?"

He stared at her, but the noises were far too close. "This way." They ran. For an old man, Luke ran swiftly and silently. Rey found herself struggling to keep up, and she'd always been fast. They made their way past the ruins of the entrance way, long ago victim to Imperial invasion on the heels of the old Rebel fleet.

"Mom brought me here when I was a child," Poe said in a whisper. "She told me the stories."

Rey cast her senses out, feeling for the tales inside the metal and stone. She saw young troops, always too young, readying ships. She heard the thrum of fear and the soaring joy of hard-won victory.

"It can take you like that," said Luke. "What you won't sense, and what your mother wouldn't have told you, is how scared everyone was. Half the pilots wet their seats flying missions, and none of us really expected to come back alive. If you made it home, you were a hero, and if you didn't, you were a fallen hero and some other kid was ready to take your place."

"You were a hero, though," said Poe. "Everyone knows that. Even he knows that," he said, gesturing to Finn, "and he grew up in the middle of a propaganda machine."

"I told you, I fell asleep during the history lessons."

Luke smiled at him. "I used to, too. On the good days, we all thought we were heroes, cocky and immortal and in love. On the bad days, we just tried to get through without losing too many friends." He rested a hand on a broken wall.

Rey had become aware of another presence. In a very quiet voice, she said, "Ren's close."

"I know."

"We can get to cover through there." She nodded, indicating a corridor off the main passage. "You two, same plan as before. Circle around."

"He'll know we're there," said Finn.

"It will take his attention," Luke said. "Go on." He and Rey made for the corridor. As she reached it, she felt a sharp push from Luke's mind. He said, "Stay here, Rey," with a harmonic that reached her bones. She couldn't move if she tried. She felt Ren searching for her.

Luke walked back into the main passage. He closed his eyes and began to speak. Rey only knew the language from the runes in the early book, knew it as shapes of words, meanings behind words. This planet was rich with life, and she felt the Force flowing through each bird, each rock, each tree, and in the microscopic life that even floated in the air. From somewhere not far away, she became aware of a slow pulse of Force energy, Light and good and thick as sap. Luke drew on the power surrounding him, crafting shapes in a place she couldn't see, only feel. His hands wove the sieve before him. His electrifying presence surmounted anything she'd imagined. The great working had begun.

Kylo Ren stepped into the corridor in front of him, lightsaber at the ready.

"Stop this now."

Luke didn't listen to him. Power surged around him, spinning in like a whirlpool, like a hurricane with himself and Ren at the eye. She could feel the Force swirling, aiming onto the dark figure in the dark mask with the darkened soul.

"Stop it!" He staggered, his confusion screeching inside his head and piercing hers.

The words Luke spoke were in no tongue left in the galaxy. Rey knew them inside herself: recreation, purgation, exchange. Energy, cool and purifying, crackled from Luke towards Ren. The shadows clouding him cringed in fear, gibbering loudly in Rey's mind as the Light stabbed through them.

Three blaster shots rang out. Two hit Luke in the abdomen, the third in the chest.

"No!" she screamed, suddenly free of the compulsion. Stormtroopers burst into the corridor, four of them. Poe took out three, while Finn began blasting at Kylo Ren. Ren deflected the blasts, arm jerking with the movement, backing away from them, fleeing.

Rey felt the blaster bolts sizzle by her as she ran to Luke. He'd fallen. She had her own lightsaber. She couldn't imagine using it now.

Finn caught the fourth Stormtrooper. "There'll be more."

She tried to cover Luke's wounds, but he bled freely. He was dying, and the spell had failed. He was dying for nothing. Another friend lost, another almost-father murdered for this worthless son.

Luke half-coughed, half-laughed.

"Luke?"

"We all lose the same battle once."

It sounded like one of his daft old Jedi sayings, and she went to say so and found he'd stopped breathing.

And then something very strange happened. As the first tears fell, she watched Luke's body vanish, like the morning frost in the first rays of desert sunlight, leaving only his robes behind. Something like a hot breeze passed by her and was lost.

"What the hell was that?" Finn asked, shock and fright in his voice.

Poe grabbed Rey by the shoulder. "We have to run. I'm sorry. There will be more Stormtroopers coming, and Ren's close."

"It didn't work," Rey said, staring at the place where Luke's body had been, terrified of disturbing the fabric and finding a metal hand. "I felt him trying, and it didn't work."

"It doesn't matter now," said Poe. He forced her to move, tugged Finn to follow.

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

Leia stopped shouting at Chewie. He'd always known when to ignore her anyway.

She sat heavily in the co-pilot's seat. She'd been preparing herself for this since the moment she saw the plan in Luke's mind. She'd felt this pain before. She knew she could endure. Luke had failed his task and he'd merely died. She ought to be grateful instead of raging against her own grief. Her twin believed in the survival of the self after death. She'd experienced enough to hope, but not enough to be certain. Even the brush of Han's mind that she'd felt in the clearing could have been wishful thinking.

Her brother was dead. The agony as he was ripped from her would not be kind enough to kill her, too.

Chewie asked her what she needed. He knew, if only from reading her face, and his sorrow matched her own.

She wanted to smoke. She wanted to scream. She accepted a huge, hairy hug.

* * *

He'd felt his uncle's death in the reeling moments as the horrible spell abated. The light-drenched fingers of the Force had clawed at his heart, and had only been discharged with the lucky shot of a blaster. Kylo had spent more than a decade believing he would kill Luke Skywalker, or else die at his hands. He had believed this was their entwined destiny, set out from the day of his birth. Destiny had been thwarted by a faceless soldier under a mask obeying the wrong orders and paying for the mistake with his own life.

Just as when he'd felt the lightsaber pierce through his father, a part of him, almost drowned in the seething cauldron of the rest of his thoughts, stood back in revulsion and sorrow.

Lord Snoke's wrath would be great, and without the Stormtrooper who'd taken the shot to blame, that anger would land squarely on the only surviving target. He had to regain control of the situation here. He could still capture the girl and the traitor, and execute Dameron. He could send fighters after the _Falcon_ , for all the good that would do. 

_"What good does any of it do?"_

"I'm not interested in dealing with ghosts."

 _"You create enough of them around you, and they won't care about your feelings on the matter."_ This was not the same voice which had nagged at his thoughts these past weeks. This was the old inner turmoil he knew from long ago. Now he understood the source, though not the identity.

"Who are you? Why have you been whispering in my ear for so long?"

_"Telling you what you don't want to hear but need to know? Whom do you think?"_

Too many ghosts. Too many options. The rolls of Kylo's personal murders were long enough, though not compared to some, but this had never sounded like a vengeful spirit. "Kenobi?"

_"Hardly. You summoned me when you were a boy. Is it a surprise I've been here?"_

He was lost in the jungle, hurt and blind and talking to ghosts. "Grandfather."

_"You hate being lied to, yet you've never liked hearing the truth. After this, you won't have the chance. You banished your father from your side. Luke would guide you for the rest of your life, but others need his wisdom more. I'm the only one left who cares about your welfare. Luke died to draw the Dark Side out of you, but the old Jedi left that magic behind for a reason. The only one who can drive evil from your soul is you."_

"If you start singing hymns, I'm going to be retroactively very disappointed in the Empire."

_"Luke couldn't fix you, but he did pull the darkness from your eyes, just as he pulled it from mine. I have warned you for years of Snoke's treachery, and your ears have been stoppered by his influence. Listen. Watch. Pay attention. Your soul is as rotten as mine was, and that's no compliment, my boy. You have a choice where you go next."_

"I want to follow in your steps. You were the most powerful Jedi who ever lived!"

 _"You are a foolish child, and you know nothing."_ The voice went still, and for the rest of his life, Kylo never heard his grandfather speak to him again.

He came back to himself, and made his way towards the distant sounds of the other Stormtroopers. He knew his path.

* * *

Finn let Poe take the lead. Rey was still walking, still moving. If she was going into shock, he couldn't tell. She'd lost friends before. They all had. But so much of her hope, her belief in her own destiny, had been riding on Luke Skywalker. Finn himself had started believing Luke would save them from Ren, would lead them to victory over the First Order, crumbs and all.

He had to stop putting his own faith in old guys. They died a lot.

People did. They'd killed more Stromtroopers back there. Those could have been people he knew. They certainly had been people like him, stolen from their homes too young and turned into machines. None had volunteered. He wondered if some of them had considered walking away as he had, and he'd just killed potential allies and friends.

Too much death today.

"Hey," he said to Rey, dropping back a little from Poe. "Want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Okay. Want to talk about something else? Ships? Stories?"

"I don't want to talk, Finn." She caught his hurt look. "Not now. I can't think, and I need to think ahead. I have to keep my shields up, and I have to plan, and all I can think about is that we're completely doomed without Luke."

"We're not. We have you."

"I don't know anything. I barely had a chance to learn even the first few lessons from him."

"Maybe. But you were an expert with a lightsaber the first time you held one, and I've watched you use your Force powers without any training. You've beaten the scariest dark lord out there more than once."

"I beat him once when he was bleeding onto the snow. I survived the other fights." Guilt crumpled her face. "Back in the clearing, Kylo Ren got to me. He told me to let him go, and I did. If I hadn't, Luke could have finished his spell."

"You said if he'd finished it, he would still be dead."

"That's not the point. He could have performed the greatest working in history, but I messed it up because I'm not a Jedi."

"Fine. You're not a Jedi. You're still the closest thing we've got." He took her hand and squeezed, before he saw her grimace and let go again. "We're going to get away. We'll meet up with the Resistance, and you can practice there. You've got his books."

"You can't train Jedi from books."

"Luke did," Poe said, the first he'd indicated he was eavesdropping. "The General said his Master died without completing his training, and he went on to found a school. Everything was from the old scrolls and books, and a few other half-trained Jedi he met. If you're the last, and unless Finn starts levitating you probably are, you're still starting out okay."

"See? You'll be great. You'll train up, and you'll come back fighting, and you'll take out Ren and save the galaxy."

Poe said, "First we need to get out of here." He'd brought them to the edge of the colony. "This world is loyal to the New Republic, but things aren't going to be easy. I've had transmissions that the local governments are shaking, even here. Everyone's afraid. I don't want to think anyone would turn us over to the First Order, but I wouldn't bet our necks on it."

"We should split up," Rey said. "We'll be less noticeable."

Finn shook his head. "Splitting up is a bad idea. We won't find each other." He'd never been interested in the entertainment holovids the other Stormtroopers watched during their R&R time, but he'd seen enough of them to know splitting up led to trouble every time.

"Maybe," said Poe. They reached a small out building. "You two should stay here. I'll find some of my friends and I'll be back for you."

"We'll go with you."

"We'll stay," Rey said. "Hurry back." As soon as he was gone, she said, "He knows this colony better than we do, and he's from this world. If the First Order comes looking, he knows how to blend in. We'll endanger him."

Finn still didn't like it. He could keep an eye on his two closest friends when they were together. Apart, anything could happen.

Rey's face twitched into a quick pain.

"What is it?"

"I have to remember to shield my mind. It's like someone peering in through a window. One moment I'm alone, and the next there's a horrible face leering at me."

"Is he close?"

"Not now. He's just always in there."

Finn thought about this. "He can sense what you're doing? What you're thinking?"

"It's getting worse. The next time I bang my ankle, Kylo Ren will say 'ouch.'"

He wasn't about to suggest punching her, and not only because he was fairly sure if he tried, she'd kick out his teeth. "Could we annoy him?"

"You think it's a good idea to annoy the homicidal maniac who keeps trying to kill us?" She was trying to sound stern, but he could see she liked the idea. Besides, anything he could do to make her a little happier and distract her from falling into grief would be a good deed.

"I was thinking that if I were to start kissing you right now, he might be annoyed enough to leave you alone."

"That may be the worst line I've ever heard."

He smiled at her hopefully until she reluctantly returned a small one of her own. She was still very close to that grief, and understanding this, he brought her into a hug for a long time.

Then they annoyed her psychic buddy.

* * *

Kylo closed his own mental shields so hard he physically rocked. He'd gone back to his new game of touching Rey's mind, and for his efforts got a mental mouthful of ex-Stormtrooper spittle. The trooper in duty guarding the ship which had brought his reinforcements watched him carefully. He knew the Stormtroopers whispered amongst themselves that he wasn't stable.

"I need your communications console. Supreme Leader Snoke is awaiting my report."

The Stormtrooper saved her own life by not asking why he wasn't using the panel on his own ship. She gave him access to their panel.

"And privacy."

She nodded and left him there.

He entered his access codes and waited until Lord Snoke's image appeared in the screen, wiping his mouth as if just finishing a meal.

"Skywalker is dead."

"You think I don't know that?" His Master glared at him with contempt. "And you failed to kill him." A disgusting gobbet lodged between two sharp teeth. As he spoke, Kylo's gaze was distracted by the stuck morsel.

"I was following your order. It was one of the Stormtroopers." He could hear the defensiveness in his own voice. Pay attention. Listen. Hah. As if that did him any good.

Watch.

Lord Snoke was not using a holoprojector, imposing over him from a distance. This was a simple visual contact, showing his chamber. The unfortunate Aldin had been dragged away, but another dark-clad body lay in his place. Kylo saw the familiar features of Snoke's quarters, so familiar he never noticed them.

"More excuses. I sense you failed to kill General Organa."

"Skywalker sent her away." Because he'd loved her. Because he'd rather face her eternal anger at him than chance causing her death. Because given the choice at saving Kylo and risking Leia, or the opposite, Luke chose his sister.

Pay. Attention. He took in the details around Snoke, each book, each data pad, each stick of furniture and device.

"As you cannot accomplish even the simplest task, I will send another agent to retrieve her. Finish off Skywalker's apprentice and return to the base."

"Retrieve? You wanted Organa killed."

"Now I want her captured, and asking you to do so would only ensure her victory. Destroy the little Padawan, unless that is also beyond your capabilities."

Snoke closed the transmission.

Kylo's fists pulled back to strike. With much effort, he relaxed them and thought. There was something in Snoke's quarters. Something he was meant to see. Something he'd seen so often he'd never noticed, or was encouraged not to notice. What had his eyes slipped off of, time and again?

There were records. The First Order's best spies turned their gaze on the Order itself. Cameras captured everything. Every conversation, every death, every whisper and grapple in the night. Someone watched. Someone recorded. Only Snoke's chambers had no camera save the one in his personal transmitter. Only Snoke had privacy. He killed in private.

He'd summoned Kylo back, and he would close his door, and Snoke would kill him as a lesson to the rest.

But that was foolish. That was a waste. No general of any army killed the best officers for sport.

He didn't have time for this. He dismissed the notion as foolishness of his own, planted by the same hallucinations his uncle had been plagued by. Before he died.

Uncle Luke had been the most powerful Jedi alive, and he'd died just like that. Another waste. Lord Snoke had wanted him brought to him, but that would have been dangerous folly. Skywalker could have defeated Snoke in any battle. Why bring him, unless to turn him? But if turning him hadn't worked, what good would bringing his most dangerous enemy into his presence have done? And why did he want Kylo's mother now, when mere hours ago he wanted her dead?

There were pieces missing.

He pulled up an image from their conversation, still recorded in the transmitter's buffers. Snoke's face was trapped in a frozen glare. Kylo looked past him again. The table.

The table was empty. He'd just eaten but there were no plates, no goblets. Lord Snoke never dined with others, and never had food delivered to his quarters. He never ate. Kylo had never noticed, had never had reason to notice, had perhaps been ordered not to notice.

The table was empty. Another Knight of Ren lay on the floor.

The databanks of the shuttle were too small to hold any useful information. He created a new transmission, another connection using Hux's credentials this time. Quickly he accessed the records on Snoke's base and told the search to cross-reference all meal orders from Lord Snoke, all food requisitions. Results scrolled by, none relevant. Some species ate rarely, glutting themselves once a year, but none of the records he could find showed a single meal delivered to his chambers.

He linked identity terms, searching for the Supreme Leader and food and the name Ren. The results narrowed. Jaldo Ren. Palon Ren. He'd known them of course, before they'd displeased their Master. Like the rest of the Knights, save for him, they had been plucked from the Stormtrooper crèche after discovery of their Force abilities.

The first record was difficult to see. Shadows covered most of the area of the base where this had been recorded. He saw Jaldo Ren's face, enough for the computer to have made the match. He saw Lord Snoke, and nothing else.

The second record was much shorter, as if most of the record had been deleted, and only these three seconds remained. Kylo rewatched the sequence over and over.

Then he wiped the search and broke the connection.

He went outside where the remaining Stormtroopers waited. "Come with me. The girl and the traitor are nearby. I can sense them towards the colony. We will find them and take them to the Supreme Leader."

* * *

Poe found the house on his second try. "Babe!" said Luna, taking him into her broad embrace as soon as she saw him. "Oh, you're all bones. Come on in. Supper's nearly ready."

Even as he stood in the doorway, the heavy smell of Luna's rich cookery tempted him. Savory stews, spicy mixes, and a huge dollop of sweet cream on his fruit for dessert were the tastes of home. If his mother hadn't been as adept a cook herself, she made friends with many who were. Meals past beckoned him.

"I can't, Madame Luna. I'm not here to visit." Nevertheless, Luna swept him into her home. "Baltana! Look who finally found his wings home!"

Luna's wife made a fuss over Poe, tutting at his hair and his clothes. "Doesn't the Republic pay you better, sonny?"

"I joined the Resistance, Madame Baltana. The pay's bad but I think Mom would approve."

"She would," Luna said. "She'd also say you're too skinny. You have time for a quick plate. Don't offend me by saying no." She walked him to a chair. When he'd been a child, he'd swung his legs waiting for whatever good things Luna would bring out while his mother chatted with her friends about her latest adventures. He let himself be sat down. His feet reached the floor and he knew everything was different now.

"The Resistance?" asked Baltana, slouching into the next chair and taking a drag from one of her slim bubble smokes, letting the exhaust out through her long, floppy ears. "Big times for you. What about for us? Aren't you supposed to be guarding the galaxy from those Imperial wishlets?" She put out her bubbles, but saved the end. Hard times, he thought, if she was hoarding those. He shouldn't have come to them.

"How bad are things here?"

"Everyone's scared. I hear the government's going to reform on some Core World. How long till the Order blasts them up, too?"

"We're trying to stop them. We stopped the Starkiller."

"They'll build another. They always do."

"Yeah." That was the one constant from all the stories he grew up with: take down one doomsday base or one dark lord, there will always be another tinpot tyrant wanting to rise up in its place. "We are doing what we can. The General will stop them." He said it for himself. He'd grown up believing there was nothing Leia Organa couldn't do.

She'd been dragged away from her last fight ignominiously, denied her chance to repair her broken family. He didn't want to face the thought there might be plenty of things she couldn't do.

"I have to get back to the Resistance but my friends and I lost our ship."

Luna plonked a plate of stew in front of him. "Lost a ship? Not so good, fly-boy. Where's your friends?"

"They're waiting for me."

Luna held an offended hand in front of her. "You didn't bring them to meet us? You embarrassed?"

"Of course not. I had to make sure they were safe." He dropped his eyes to the food. "This looks great."

"You're embarrassed of something," said Baltana, watching him eat. "You meet a girl?"

"No."

"You meet a boy?"

"I didn't meet anyone, Madame Baltana." He bolted the food, making appreciative gestures. "Excellent as always."

Baltana said to Luna, "He's met someone."

He ignored their pleased smiles. "I need a ship."

"And you think ships drop out of the sky here? And they're still flyable when they do?"

"You know people who know people."

Baltana said, "I know people who know money. You got credits on you?"

"A few." Very few, and Finn had none at all. Rey wouldn't, either. "I need a loan, too. I can repay you when I get back to the Resistance."

"Never writes, comes back without calling, eats our food, and wants money." Luna batted him on the head. "Told you we should have adopted him." Her face was kind. "We'll help you. And you'll introduce us to your friends."

He hesitated. He'd come alone to protect Finn and Rey. The less their faces were seen, the better off they all were. But Luna and Baltana were family. "All right."

"The spaceport," said Baltana. "Give me one hour."

"And I'll pack some food for your friends," said Luna. "Bet they're as skinny as you are."

"They'll love that. Thank you. Thank you both."

Baltana patted his head. "It's fine, sonny. Come visit more often."

* * *

The attack came the moment they were out of hyperspace. The _Falcon_ rocked with blasts. She could see three ships bearing the insignia of the First Order. There would be more.

"We've got to jump again!" Leia said, punching in coordinates into the old computer. Chewie flew the ship through the barrage as well as he could, but they could both tell she was already damaged.

Leia cut short the calculation and hit the jump. The ship coughed but the drive didn't catch. Chewbacca dodged more blasts, and another hit one of their power inlays. Swearing a blue streak, he rerouted the power while Leia took over the controls. She pushed more speed out of the dying engine.

"C'mon, girl. You can do this." Talking to the ship had worked for Han. Sometimes. The _Falcon_ edged forward a little faster, though it was probably due to Chewie's efforts. Still, she patted the panel. "Good girl."

She hadn't been at the controls of this ship in over ten years. She'd kept up her qualification on X-wings and she was passingly familiar with the operation of most of the Resistance's vessels. None were the _Millennium Falcon_. This ship was molded around her pilot and co-pilot, evolving controls to eke out a little more speed, a little more maneuverability. Leia knew the basics, but she'd never know these controls as well as Han. 

_"Help me,"_ she thought, despairing of any answer and certain she was about to find out first hand what happened after death.

The memory, decayed and buried under heartache, rushed back into her mind: the day she'd taken her first real lesson on flying this souped-up mess of a wonderful starship under Han's alternately affectionate and exasperated teaching. Without realizing it, her body slid in the seat to a more comfortable position, and she relaxed her arms. She flew with her instincts now, flipping between red hot blasts, aware that Chewbacca was behind her rewiring circuit after circuit.

Leia zipped between two attacking fighters, letting them fire upon each other, and only regretted the fireball was behind her where she couldn't watch.

The hyperdrive caught. The sudden tug of the universe on edge exploded into starburst around them. The other ships would pursue them. For now, they were out of direct danger.

"Good job," she said to Chewbacca as he climbed out of the repair chute. "They'll be behind us. We won't be able to rejoin the rest of the fleet yet."

He said he didn't have an issue with that. He preferred being out here with her.

"No sweet talking, you old charmer. Any luck with the cloak?" He shook his head and admitted it had always been half-functional at best, tripped up with the rest of the unique modifications on this old beauty. He might get it up and running again. They couldn't rely on the protection.

They'd escaped once. They could hide. She still knew how to fly this ship, although the nudge at the right time was the difference between them being here now and being space dust back there. One nudge.

Leia sat back. She wasn't sure. She'd had those memories all along, But just in case, she thought, _"Thank you."_

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

Darkness spread over the moon's surface. Bloated red Yavin hung malevolently in the sky. Sparkling colony lights fought against the sprinkle of visible stars. The contrast between the night above them and the glitter around them as they hurried towards the spaceport nearly took Rey's breath away. So many worlds. So much to see.

Somewhere close by, she felt a serene presence, comforting against the malign touch at the back of her thoughts. The tree. Poe had told them about it, and Rey longed to take the time to see what he'd meant. She would settle for listening to the quiet song of limb and leaf and sap, drowsing through decades.

The song was rudely interrupted. _"I need to speak with you."_ Ren's voice echoed clearly in her mind.

Rey slammed down her mental shields again. This was past ridiculous. She could fight Ren off. She'd pushed him out of her head when she'd been under his direct control, clawing her way into his mind as she battled him. Instead of driving him off, she'd established an intimate, violating connection. He'd chased her, terrified her, attacked her, and now he was using their unwanted bond as a radio.

"Go. Away."

Finn turned to her, worried. "That wasn't to me, was it."

"Kylo Ren wants to talk."

"He wants our location," Poe said. He'd returned with food, borrowed cloaks, and good news. Now he looked worried again. "Do you have any way of shutting down his link with you?"

"I've been trying. Luke didn't have long to train me." He'd wanted that connection, had planned on it. He'd needed Rey to bait his trap, but the trap had failed, and the hunter was lost, and the quarry had only become more savage.

"I'm worried about taking you back with us," Poe said. "The moment we land, our worst enemy will know where our base is."

"He already knows. It's D'Qar," Finn said.

"We're abandoning that site. The General gave the order to move out as soon as we left. The First Order would have attacked us as soon as they regathered their forces."

"You're thinking about leaving me here." The old fears bit into her all the way to the bone.

Finn said, "We're not leaving you here or anywhere. You're coming with us."

"Of course you are," Poe said, but Rey didn't believe him. "We're not leaving you behind. But you have to get control over your powers before we can risk rejoining the fleet. That's not a security risk I'm willing to take."

"Fine. I can take care of myself. I always have done." She turned away, affronted and worried he might be right.

She wasn't surprised to feel Finn's hand on her elbow. A small part of her wondered if she'd turned away simply to see if he would come after her. "We're not doing this. Rey, you're getting out of here with us. Poe, if you think we're too dangerous to go home, we'll go somewhere else. Together. Maybe we can hop a transport to Coruscant or something. See the galaxy."

_"Yes. We'll all have drinks together on a Spiran beach. Dameron can go snorkeling. Perhaps he'll drown."_

Rey froze.

Poe watched her face. "What does he want?" He stared directly into Rey's eyes and said in a louder voice: "What do you want?"

"That's very annoying," Rey said, and hated the fact that she could feel Ren's agreement.

_"I need to talk to you. Alone."_

She closed her eyes. _"We are talking."_

_"Not like this. We need to meet."_

She thought very clearly about their previous encounters. _"No."_

_"There are ten Stormtroopers coming to your position. Your friends shot four of their colleagues, and they've been ordered to kill you and Dameron. They're going to be far more creative with FN-2187 before he's permitted to die."_

"There are Stormtroopers on the way," she said aloud.

Poe took a hand from each. "Come on. We can make it to the ship."

_"I didn't send them. I'm about to order them to search away from you."_

_"Aiming to get the credit for yourself?"_ She had to keep her eyes open to run. By now, she knew he could hear her no matter what. Finn kept watching her, mindless of their haste, worry on his face.

_"I'll be waiting at the spaceport."_

Rey stopped dead, and Poe nearly fell as he didn't stop in time. "He's already there. He's waiting for us."

"Then we'll fight him again," Finn said. "There's three of us."

"And plenty of Stormtroopers," Poe reminded him. He swore. "I thought we might be able to get out of here."

"Ren said he sent the Stormtroopers away."

Poe said, "Yeah. He's lying."

_"Tell me,"_ she thought. _"Tell me what you want me to know, and I'll agree to see you"_

_"Do you know what the klemont are?"_ She didn't. He went on, _"They are a species which feed off Force energy. They live on a world in the Outer Rim. One will make a Force user weak. A hunting pack can drain even a fully-trained Jedi of power and life in a matter of minutes."_ In his mind, she saw the image of long, silvery creatures devouring a man.

_"I won't visit that world."_

_"There have been rumors of other species with the same hunger. Find someone strong with the Force, drain them, and use their powers."_

She let out an exasperated sigh. "Let's go," she said to her friends. "Now he thinks he's a vampire."

_"No. But I know who is."_ He gave her an image from his mind. Three seconds long and brutal in simple intensity: a vicious little man plunged his fingers into the eye socket of a young man not much older than Rey. Purple energy flowed, but where a Dark Lord would have blasted an underling with the power, this creature drank it greedily from the dying youth's body.

_"Good. Go to him. Let him drain you dry. You're not feeding me to him in your place."_

Rey closed herself off, doubting it would help.

* * *

Poe tried to think, but they were running out of options. Rey had stopped trying not to talk to Ren, which meant every second she was with them, he knew their exact location. But if they didn't get off world, it was only a matter of time before the door to door hunts began, and more Stormtroopers left to make things miserable for the people who lived here. No, better to get away fast and give the First Order no reason to find this green moon interesting.

"Does it stop if you're unconscious?"

"It's worse. He came into my dream last night."

"He did what?" Finn looked furious, but he'd been there last night, hadn't he? The day had been very, very long.

Rey said, "I don't think the Stormtroopers will be there."

Poe didn't say he didn't trust her. He didn't have to. Finn said, "There's no chance for us to sneak away if Ren's there waiting for us. So let's not sneak, and let's not run. We'll fight him."

"You're not getting a rematch today," Poe said. "You're not healed all the way from the last time you fought him. We'll find another way in. Rey, think of flowers and rainbows and other things that will irritate the hell out of him."

Baltana and Luna met them outside the port. "About time you showed up," said Baltana. "There's bad sorts here looking for you."

"And who is this?" asked Luna with a bright smile.

"We don't have time," said Poe quickly, but Luna immediately went to Finn and Rey.

"Our boy doesn't bring friends home often. It's wonderful to meet you."

Poe said, answering the confused expressions on his friends' faces, "Madame Luna and Madame Baltana are old friends of my family. They're helping us get the ship. Madame, this is Finn, and this is Rey."

Finn's face broke out in a bright grin. "You made the food? It was great." Rey nodded in agreement and said her thanks. She was distracted, almost enough to be rude, but Poe's aunts didn't notice.

To his horror, Luna turned back to her wife and winked. "Both!" she said in Dantarian.

"What's that?" Finn asked politely. Poe cleared his throat.

"The ship. I hate to rush but if we don't, we're going to die."

"This way," said Baltana. She led them through one of the worker entrances to the port, sliding her badge through and shuffling the three of them through quickly. Luna stayed outside, waving madly.

"Luna doesn't get undercover," Baltana said conversationally. "You'll have a problem if those Stormtroopers come knocking because she's ready to show them your baby pictures."

"Please tell her it's important not to."

"You could come visit more often."

He bit down on a couple of replies. Only one mattered. "I will. I swear."

Baltana brought them out at the side of the main hangar. Poe did a visual sweep of the area. No Stormtroopers that he could see. He'd missed BB-8 on this trip so many times, and he missed his favorite little droid again now. A quick sensor scan, and they'd be set.

They had an unconventional sensor at their disposal. "Where's Darth Jerkhead?" Rey pointed. Poe couldn't see where she meant, and he was sure she didn't see, either. "Do you think we can get around him?"

"No."

"Who are we looking at?" Baltana craned her thick, squat neck to see. Poe's stomach tightened.

"Madame, you have to get away from here."

"Why? Some First Order nobody is here looking for our boy, I can given him a talking to."

Finn said, "Not this guy. He's trouble. Which ship is ours?"

"The blue one." Baltana dropped a control key into Poe's hand and kissed his cheek. "I'll go talk to your friend. Tell him to get out of my spaceport."

Poe grabbed her arm before she could stalk over. "No. Madame, earlier today he killed Luke Skywalker. Please. Get out safely and tell Madame Luna I'll be back soon."

She glared at him but the warning had shaken her. She wasn't all bluff. She still couldn't take this fight, and the last thing he wanted was to lose someone else to the madman waiting for them in the shadows. "Be good, Poe. Take care of these two. Luna knows these things."

"I will. Give her my love."

Baltana went out the back way. Small favors. They still had Kylo Ren to deal with. "All right. I'm going to go out and distract them. You two get to the ship. Start her up. If I can make it back to you, wait. If I can't, get out of here." He went to give Finn the key, but he still couldn't fly. Rey folded her arms and wouldn't take it, either.

"I'm the only one who's faced him down, and you're the only one who knows where the Resistance is headed. I'll distract Ren. You get the ship."

"Still not liking this plan," said Finn.

"It's our best plan," Rey said, and kissed him on the cheek. "Keep my seat warm. I'll be right there."

"Come on," Poe said, grabbing Finn's shoulder. "We won't leave without her."

Finn's gaze was distracted. Poe rolled his eyes, then saw what Finn was looking at. "Oh no."

* * *

He'd felt her approaching the spaceport for some time, felt her great hesitancy, and now he felt her walking towards him. With his eyes closed, Kylo could sense the distance narrowing between them again, as if they were two ends of a spring pulled apart and hurtling towards each other to collide.

"What do you want?" Her voice stayed firm, accusing. "If you were going to try to kill me, you'd have attacked the moment I set foot in the building."

"You're still in the building. I have time."

"You said you wanted to talk about Force vampires."

"I needed to speak with someone else who uses the Force. You're the only one who doesn't work for the First Order."

"You killed the rest." She was grieving for Luke, her obvious sorrow held in tight abeyance for the sake of her current task.

"Not all."

"You tried."

"Yes."

"Why?" He could feel her rage building inside her. She had the same potential he did. Stoke her anger, feed her resentment, and Rey would make a perfect weapon. Her body poised midway between fighting him and fleeing.

"You wouldn't understand."

"That's not an answer." The anger grew inside her, haloing her in energy she could take and use if she just reached out to claim her due. He wondered how far he could push her until she fell over that edge. He should kill her before she did. It would be safer for him and less traumatic for her.

Almost perfectly in step, they began circling each other. He'd called her here, and she'd come. She hadn't wanted to. She couldn't stay away. He could summon her. He had to ask her for help. The words of a plea wouldn't form in his mouth.

"You can try to kill me," Rey said, one hand on her unlit lightsaber and keeping pace with him. "You've tried before. You can keep trying, and I will always fight you, and I will win. Leave us alone."

"I didn't come here to kill you." He removed his mask. "Lord Snoke has been gathering Force-sensitive children to him for years. He ordered the deaths of those he couldn't collect for his own. I thought he was building an army. Instead he was gathering a herd and culling the rest. I have to stop him."

He felt the scorn in her mind. "That doesn't make you any better. You're not growing a conscience. You're frightened of the abattoir." The word rang oddly in her mind, unfamiliar, drawn from his fears rather than her own knowledge. She could read him like a display screen.

"Kylo Ren!" One of the Stormtroopers. He'd ordered them to search elsewhere in the colony. Apparently even they were smart enough to realize there was only one place their quarry would come.

He sighed. "A moment." He looked up where the troopers had come in. "I have the situation under control. You may guard outside in case the others appear."

The Stormtrooper said, "You have been ordered to return to the base immediately."

"I don't take orders from Stormtroopers. My orders came directly from Supreme Leader Snoke."

"So did ours." No 'sir' he noticed.

_"Underlings not bowing down?"_ Rey said in his mind.

"You will return to the First Order immediately," said a second Stormtrooper, far more stupidly. Annoyed, Kylo reached out with his powers and threw the man to the floor.

"I will go when I'm ready. I have a prisoner. I will interrogate her. Then I can return."

_"You're not going to interrogate me."_

_"I have to tell them something."_

"Our orders are to shoot the Resistance members on sight."

"Belay them. This girl is a valuable source of information. Go outside." He sent a mind push with his words. Mind-controlling Stormtroopers was a child's game, beneath him. It did smooth through life's rough edges. The troopers turned to go.

Then a blue ship across the hangar fired its engines, and all hell broke loose.

* * *

The good news was, they distracted the Stormtroopers.

The bad news was, the Stormtroopers began firing on them.

Finn automatically checked to see what kind of weapons their borrowed ship featured, and he wasn't surprised to discover the answer was 'none.' In a way he was relieved. He'd fight his former comrades at arms. He didn't want to if he could avoid it.

The ship boomed with the weapons strikes. Outside, the viewscreen showed him not all the troopers had their attention on the blue ship. Two began firing on Rey.

"We have to get her now!"

"Lowering the gangplank," Poe said, dropping it with a worrisome thud. "She'll have to come to us."

Finn dashed down to the entrance. "Rey!"

Her lightsaber was out, and she blocked blasts as well as she could. Ren was right behind her. Finn grabbed for his own blaster, carefully aiming for his black-clad former superior. Even though Finn doubted he could kill Ren, he could keep him away from Rey while she headed towards them.

One of Finn's blasts grazed Ren's leg. Before he could celebrate, Rey sagged, favoring the same leg. He saw her mouth the word, "Ouch."

More blasts came his way, forcing Finn back into the ship.

He didn't want to shoot the Stormtroopers. He would do it anyway if their deaths meant saving Rey, but he didn't want to. They were like him. He should talk to the other brainwashed children, not kill them.

One of the troopers, brighter than the rest, aimed up. The ceiling of the port, designed from the beginning to blow up rather than out in case of an explosion, cracked in a giant hole in the center which began to crumble out.

Finn shouted her name again, unable to hear his own voice in the noise.

In his mind, he felt her presence. _"I'm all right. I can't reach you now. Go. I'll take another ship and find you. Frequency gamma gamma two delta one."_

He ignored it. The voice could be a trick. Heavy pieces of steel and concrete dropped as the ceiling caved faster. "Finn, get in here! We have to go now!"

"She's still out there!"

_"GO!"_ she shouted in his mind so loudly his legs obeyed the order before his head even registered.

He felt Poe's hands grab him, tugging him inside before his friend slammed the hatch controls. The ship was ready to take off. Finn paid attention to the controls Poe used as they blasted through the crumbling ruin of the spaceport.

Two TIE fighters waited for them.

"We have to go back," he said, but they had no weapons, no way to fight, and no chance unless they fled now. Poe looked up at him.

"We're running. I heard her, too." He flipped the comm line and set it to frequency gamma gamma two delta one. "She'll contact us."

He dropped their ship suddenly, avoiding the first blast from the TIE fighter in front of them. This old shuttle wasn't much, and they didn't have the speed to get away.

"This is going to get bumpy," he warned, and Finn fell against the bulkhead as Poe dodged another blast. He slammed hard on the engines, pulling up and out into the night sky, the fighters pursuing them. "Come on, come on." He got free of the planet's surface and engaged the hyperdrive. They slammed into a spray of starshine.

_"We'll find you,"_ Finn thought as hard as he could.

* * *

The blue ship barely made it out of the spaceport before more of the roof caved in. Rey struck out with her powers instinctively, creating a barrier between herself and the falling rubble. This world flowed with Force energy. She felt her connection to the core of the moon, to the life in the jungle outside, and the strength of the tree.

For a moment, she held everything in perfect balance.

The next moment, she felt herself slipping. Rey got out of the way of the worst of it just in time as the destroyed ceiling cascaded to the ground. The destruction separated her momentarily from the Stormtroopers. It only left her trapped with her worst enemy, who was already rising to his feet.

Beyond him was an old scow, the last ship left unscathed in the destruction around them. If she fought her way past him, she could take it and follow her friends.

Her lightsaber was too far from her, trapped under the debris.

Luke had told her such things didn't matter. It wasn't the size of the task. She could focus again. She needed to focus faster, because Ren was going to kill her. Impending death didn't sharpen her mind or her skills. All she could think was how disappointed everyone would be in her.

Her staff was in her hands in a moment. She spun and hit him hard, feeling the impact echoed on her own side. Rey was stunned by the sharp pain, and in her distraction, he sliced her staff in two. She kicked out, but Ren ducked the kick. He was faster this time, faster than he had been. He raised his lightsaber. She reached out her mind for her own. She poured every ounce of Force energy she could find into one thought: _"Come to me."_

Rey expected a blow, had already started her roll, but his arms were there, trapping her, and his mouth found hers. She felt power skitter through him, wrapping around her and filling her through the sudden connection. Her lips tingled. Everything tingled, from the hairs on her head down her spine to her heels, alive with electric fire. The circuit was complete.

Ren pulled away, his face as shocked as her own. He hadn't meant to kiss her. He'd intended to kill her. She was sure. Her lightsaber was light years away from her.

Rey kissed him back, mouths crashing together as they met. She felt his mind against her, pushing as he'd pushed before, and she shoved back as hard, thoughts smashing into one another. His mind tangled with duty and fear and desire. His eyes were open, perhaps for the first time since he'd been a child. He was running away. He needed to kill her to regain his place within the First Order. He wanted her alive, wanted her help, wanted her. She saw these things in a flash, hazed over by the other thoughts broiling in his head: vengeance and self-hatred and longing and a riot of unnameable emotions centered on Rey.

"You're confused, too," he breathed, reaching a gloved finger to brush her lips. "Nothing makes sense." He'd read her, like he always read her. She needed to use her mental shields. But what was the point? She could learn all his secrets, and the price would only be all of hers.

"You want to run away from here," she said, watching his eyes. "We can take the ship."

"If I leave now, Lord Snoke will never let me come back."

"He intends to kill you." The thought was clear in his mind. Another thought pushed for attention. "You think he's going after your mother."

"He's already given the order. She's the only one left with Vader's power." For all his confusion, these thoughts formed a straight line. "I have to find her first."

She kissed him again, acting on signals that had nothing to do with sense. The Force moved through all living things, joining all beings. The Force compelled the two of them to meet, slithering around them like leather cords, piercing both through with the same sharp spear.

"I need my lightsaber."

"It's not yours."

"Then I need to return it to its rightful owner." She reached out her hand, and now, the lightsaber came easily to her. Power flowed through her, as if a spigot had been turned on. His arms still entrapped her but she was more powerful than she'd ever been, energy bounding between them and multiplying as they stood there, each armed, unable to speak.

The dust was clearing. They'd be spotted in a few seconds. "How many Stormtroopers are there?"

"Six. I can kill four but the others are too far."

Four faces behind masks, all of them Finn's. "No. We're not killing them. I can trap them until we escape."

Ren stared at her disbelievingly. "They are your enemies."

"They never had a choice about it."

She spent one more moment completely still, the heat of his body pressed against her. Then Rey ducked out of his embrace and dashed out of cover. Immediately one of the Stormtroopers saw her and fired.

Perfect.

She threw her lightsaber, praying like mad the arc was right. The blade held true, slicing through struts supporting the remaining ceiling of the hangar.

"Now!" she shouted to Ren, but he'd scooped his mask from the ground and was already boarding the shuttle. She expected him to close the door without her, abandoning her, but the hatch stayed open as she called her lightsaber into her hand. She jumped aboard, slapping the close toggle. He was already in the pilot's seat and firing the engines.

They burst from the hangar out into the planet's sky. One ship tried to engage, but he rolled out of the way and shot through towards space. The shuttle's hyperdrive sputtered before it caught, flinging them out into the stars.

"I'll have to contact my friends. We can rendezvous where it's safe. Make a plan." They were only words, sounds she could make as she watched him set the autopilot. Already his eyes were dark, focused on her.

"Yes."

Her back pressed against the bulkhead. Even with her eyes closed she felt him approach, felt his mind. Asking. He was asking for admittance, and her shields dropped, if they'd ever been up. He entered her thoughts as he pushed his leg between her knees. Rey's senses filled with his heat and the scent of his skin while she drank deeply of every memory. Her hands found his face blindly, found his lips, and felt the tender bite as she slid them into his mouth.

_"Tell me what you want."_

A brief guilt gnawed at her. _"This."_

He yanked his gloves and dropped them to the floor before reaching for her belt. His robes were complex, but allowed her easy reach to what she wanted. _"Hear me,"_ and nothing else he thought was as settled as mere words. He thrust into her clumsily, and she gasped in the first pain of their awkward coupling. He lifted her, holding her high against the wall with his powers. The angle felt sublime.

"There."

Rey kept herself together, kept unfolding him from the inside. Years of First Order training and plans spooled under her mental fingers, too much to take in. His mind was bare before her, and she was overwhelmed.

Want drove him deeper into her, and she felt the desire tripling back upon herself as he found a place inside her that made them both groan. She'd had lovers before, quick warm trysts between friends for a night, and gone again. None filled her soul this way. She felt him behind her own eyes, indulging in her pleasure with her. He couldn't form coherence now, but fed her a tendril of his own thought. She felt his thick lust, and the slick pressure of her own body forming a perfect friction around each twitch of his hips. He'd never felt anything other than his own hand before, and the new sensations overwhelmed him. Rey fed on his indulgence, drank him down, and filtered back to him the sparkling light blooming on every inch of her skin pressed against his.

A stray memory came back to her, in the last private place inside herself. He wanted to be told he was the best, and she didn't have to lie. "I've never felt this good before."

He let out a moan in her ear. She felt the starburst inside him, touched it and rode his peak to her own body-clenching climax. Energy pulsed from her back into him, rebounding into her. A light above them flared and popped. The ship shuddered around them, engines absorbing the unfamiliar jolt of their powers going to ground.

They fell to the floor, bodies still bound, clothes snarled. His eyes were wide, and he trembled. Rey felt trembly herself, in the best way. She took quick stock of her body, but she'd practiced each day, even during these mad few weeks. This would be a terrible time to have forgotten.

"What's that?" The question was simple, not layered with anything but curiosity.

"You don't know? The med droids teach you how to regulate your body to keep you from conceiving when you don't want to."

"The First Order prefers sterilization." That led to questions she didn't want the answers to right now. His fingers found her face again. "You can control all your body's functions?"

"Some."

Instead of words, he sent her a mental image of the pair of them tangling this same way with the shattering cascade lasting hours instead of mere moments. Her mouth went dry at the picture, at the promise. Rey bit his lip.

This time, they made it to the bunk.

* * *


	8. Chapter 8

He couldn't see her face. Finn was sure everything would make more sense if he could just see Rey as she spoke to them over the long-range communicator.

"We need a rendezvous point," she said, after their hellos. "The engines on this thing aren't very powerful. I've found a way to push it along faster." Faintly, away from the mic, he heard her whisper, "Stop that now."

"What was that?"

"Nothing to worry about. I've picked up a co-pilot. He's an idiot, but he can fly."

He? Finn tamped down that curiosity under Poe's quick 'shut up' glare. Poe said, "Can you make it to Axxila?"

"We can try." She closed the transmission.

"I knew she would make it out safe," said Poe. "You knew she would make it out safe."

"'He?'"

Poe turned away and set the course for Axxila into the computer. "Rey's obviously picked up another stray fluffken. Soon we'll have the whole flock, and I can coop you all up for the eggs."

"I'm not a baby fluffken. I'm a trained soldier, thank you." He? "Have you reached the Resistance fleet yet?"

"I've been trying the usual frequencies. No chatter."

"But we can join them from Axxila?"

"We should." There was a hesitancy in his voice.

"You said you knew where the fleet was relocating to."

"The General does. I was going to be told when we were ready to go there. She knew the mission."

"I don't understand."

Poe tended to keep his face in a half smile. Finn had come to recognize this as a more effective mask that his own old helmet. "Our original mission was to retrieve Luke Skywalker, the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. If he'd gone to the Dark Side and I'd known the location of the new base, he could have taken it from my head."

"You're telling me we're lost?"

"No. I'll find the fleet. Axxila is a good place to start. We'll pick up Rey, we'll rejoin the fleet, and we'll go from there."

"You don't like her, do you?"

Poe blinked in confusion. "What?"

"You're always weird around Rey. Don't think I haven't noticed. You're nice to everyone, but you've got some issue with her. Is it the Jedi thing?"

"I don't have an issue with her, Finn. I like Rey fine." He put on a smile Finn didn't believe for a second. "The Jedi thing makes me nervous. I've met them, and some are good, and some are monsters, and she's got one of the biggest monsters riding along inside her head. I can't help wondering what he's saying to her in there. If Rey's going to be as strong as everyone says, Kylo Ren is the last person we want doing anything to her. I'm worried for her, and I'm worried for us. But I don't dislike her."

"Good." Finn didn't want his two best friends to fight.

* * *

"I feel like a broken tape spool, but we should do that again."

Rey nodded, resting her sleepy head against Kylo's bare shoulder. The low oxygen in their stolen shuttle was getting to her again. That must be why she felt so intoxicated in his arms. When had she gone from "Don't touch me!" to "Touch me like this...."?

Deep inside herself, in a place he couldn't reach, she clawed back to sanity. In a long list of terrible ideas, this was her absolute worst. She knew her own cool hatred of the man next to her, blaming him for the loss of friends, of home, of hope. He destroyed everything he touched. He'd stalked her halfway across the galaxy in order to slay her and everyone she cared about. That hadn't changed, no matter how limp and sated her body felt, resting here between hungers. She'd been drawn to him by the unwilling bond of their linked minds. They'd smashed into each other, two half-trained angry magicians misusing their own powers, and like two crashed speeder bikes, they were entangled, unable to go forward or back. The presence of him so near, inside her mind and beside her body, overrode the inner warnings and drew them both to merge into one again and again. Only the certain knowledge that he was as helpless as she kept her from weeping inside her own mind.

They were both caught. He didn't want to be here with her. He didn't want to be obsessed with her. He hated Rey as much as Rey hated him, and after they rested for a while, she would be ready to shove his shoulders against the thin mattress of this bunk and ride him until he screamed. Again.

Despite his suggestion they do so right now, she felt him nod off. His mind went silent for a while before drifting into a dream. They had no mental barriers between them now, save the very small place in her own mind which she'd blocked off from his view. She read his dreams as easily as she once watched holodramas scavenged from the rec center of an old Imperial crash. 

He dreamed about her, reliving the better parts of the last few hours. Half-awake herself, she felt the arousal bloom between her legs, knowing how deeply he wanted her.

The dream shifted. She saw a curious little man, the same as from the vision he'd shown her back on Yavin IV. "Where have you gone, my apprentice?"

Fear wormed into her. Rey's own dream self was gone, and her lover turned back to a boy of no more than eight or nine years old. He hid around a corner from the man.

"You can't hide forever. Come home and all will be forgiven."

He stayed hidden. Rey pulled herself from the dream, and shook him awake. "Did your boss just call you?"

He blinked the sleepiness from his eyes. "He's trying to track me. He doesn't know where we are. You heard him, too?"

"I heard your dreams." In another context, this would be very romantic. In this context, Rey couldn't contain her shudder. "You're sure you're shielded?"

"From Snoke? Yes." He sat up on the bunk, away from her. His mind lay open to her still, and she read the fear. Snoke hadn't tracked him, but he wouldn't stop looking for his prize pupil.

"Has he found your mother yet?"

"No. He hasn't found her and she's alive." He was positive, and she knew he wasn't lying, either.

"If you can read her mind, why didn't you use that against her?"

"She and my uncle could always shield their thoughts to me." His thoughts wandered down what she could see was a well-traveled path of things hidden and old resentments. A borrowed memory jarred her, stealing her breath. She hid her reaction.

"We should spar," Rey said, crawling past him to get out of the bunk. She'd found a supply of clothes from the ship's owners, and dug out a light shift to wear.

"You want me to teach you all my secrets so you can defeat me the next time we fight?" She felt more amusement than worry. Despite their history, he didn't consider her a threat.

"You're not afraid, are you?"

A teasing smile crossed his face. "I wouldn't want to injure you, at least not for the next few days."

She pulled her hair back out of her way. "Put your trousers back on. Your family has a bad habit of losing limbs during duels. I wouldn't want to chop off something I might have use for later."

There wasn't much room on their stolen ship. The wrong stray movement with either lightsaber and they risked damaging the scow, or each other. He'd said he wasn't interested in maiming her for the moment, and Rey admitted she had other needs from him while they were trapped together. Despite his word and her own desires, she didn't trust Kylo, not at all. She was sure if he thought he could best her now, he'd kill her with no regrets. The thin air didn't help. She couldn't catch her breath, she couldn't think clearly.

It was perfect training.

They danced together through the ship, blocking and parrying each other's blows. Her own skills had been honed by her staff and years of fighting the other scavengers. They'd come for her finds, and her few possessions, and for her body, and each time, she'd fended them off. She had the skill. Her lightsaber could work as that kind of weapon, and her fighting style served as enough of a surprise to keep him off his guard.

 _"Watch your feet!"_ he thought at her, and she expected a lunge, but instead she saw the careful step of his own, bare on the metal floor. She couldn't copy the stance. Instead she let herself become more aware of her limbs and the position of her body as she spun to block another attack. For a moment, their faces were next to each other.

She felt him expect her to kiss him. Instead she hit him with an elbow and jumped back, twirling her lightsaber like her staff and nearly disarming him.

He frowned in thought. "Show me that again."

Rey demonstrated, slowing her movements for him to echo. She oughtn't let him see her techniques. He'd find the means to thwart her. At the same time, she couldn't help the pride that formed in her belly as he copied her movements, shifting his center of balance until his own muscles functioned the same way. As he went through the motion again, she brought her lightsaber around, and now he was defending in the same fashion she did.

"You need to work on your form," he said, and attacked head-on. Rey feinted and ducked, heading for the cockpit. He followed, body lit up with the red glow of his lightsaber. "Are you trying to get trapped in there?"

She read a very clear image in his head of the two of them trying to fit into one pilot's chair, Rey wrapped sinuously around him.

She switched off her lightsaber as Kylo approached her. Instantly she fell to the floor and dove through his legs, slapping the close button as she did. Technically, this did not help her learn how to spar, but the thud of his fist on the metal door from the other side was a satisfying victory.

A moment later, he touched the control panel on his side. "You'll have to do better than that."

"You'll have to teach me, then."

He switched off his lightsaber, placing it carefully on the one small table bolted to the bulkhead. "After we've eaten. You said you found food?"

"Not much. I don't think they were intending a long voyage. The food synthesizer's busted." Their fight done, Rey turned her back to him, digging for the rations packs she'd found. She felt his hands on her back, hot through the thin fabric she wore. Rey tensed. He could just as easily kill her with his bare hands, or even without. He'd used the Force to kill any number of people in the past.

"I don't want you dead." He kissed her neck. "I don't want you hurt." After their second coupling, or had it been the third? When they'd come up for breath, she'd helped him apply a bacta bandage to the burn on his leg from Finn's blaster. Each accidental prod to the tender flesh sent an equal measure of pain into her own leg. He wasn't saying kind things to get her back into the bunk with him. They had joined to the point where not only did they form a deliriously pleasurable feedback loop whenever they touched, they also felt one another's pain. What that meant for when they must eventually face each other for real over locked lightsabers was anyone's guess.

They ate their rations quickly. Rey was used to poor food, and the First Order didn't provide much better than this. Food was energy, and they'd been burning up more than they should pushing the engines with their powers.

"Have you ever eaten poached ganza eggs?"

"No. I found a hirachi nest once. They're sand birds, hardly any meat on them, but the eggs were good." She'd roasted them, allowing herself one per day.

"They poach the ganza eggs in a light fruit liquour, and serve them over hot mash. They're perfect when the yolks are cooked almost through, and you break them open to soak into the mash." Her tasteless meal became even less satisfying as she read the sense memory from his mind, the rich smell of the sauce and the hot savory mash with each springy bite of egg.

"Stop talking about food. We don't have enough rations to eat more, and you're making me hungry again."

Instead of replying, he took the rations wrapper from her hand and dropped their waste into the small incinerator. Then he touched his head against hers, pressing into her the memories of meals he remembered, portions larger than any she'd ever seen, decadent tastes of sweets and spices and succulent meats. None of the memories were recent, and all clouded over with the patina of childhood awe.

_"I didn't know what I was missing."_

_"Now you do."_

She hated him for that, for the regrets of what she never had and what he'd thrown away. She had no luxuries in her life, no memories of warm meals or tender arms tucking her in at night, or of knowing she was safe and loved. He'd been given those outrageously profligate riches from birth, and he'd walked away from them. Rey never would have. She'd have stayed forever.

"Nothing's forever. You know that."

And she listened as it crossed his mind again that at some point, he would have to kill her.

* * *

They landed the _Falcon_ for repairs on a small moon with little atmosphere. Leia remembered this from countless times in her younger days, patching up this same vessel with spit and hope. She still had spit.

"We don't have long," she said, though Chewie already knew. He'd yanked off half a dozen panels, giving her quick instructions how to repair one at a time while his clever paws dug into the wounded guts of the ship he loved. Leia followed his directions, thinking back to the many times she'd tried looking at schematics of this freighter class, only to come up against the radical modifications those two clowns had performed.

"What do you want to do with her?" Leia asked, as they stood side by side at different panels.

Chewie asked with who, and growled as he poked himself with a soldering iron.

"The _Falcon_. She was yours as much as she was Han's. I've got no interest in his share. I love this old bird, but I'm only a pilot when I have to be."

He shrugged. He said he was happy to keep flying her as long as he could. He'd thought he'd found a decent co-pilot, but she could be anywhere now. She could be dead.

She shook her head. Rey wasn't dead. Leia was sure of it. She was less sure about Commander Dameron and his pet ex-Stormtrooper. Worrying about them did her no good. She had to trust Poe would get them all back to the Resistance safely, and she would focus on getting herself and Chewie back there. After that, they could worry.

* * *

Poe wasn't worried. That was his story and he would stick by it. The little blue ship was the best Madame Baltana could have done under the circumstances. Whoever she'd bought it from had been paid too much. The engines coughed along on very little fuel. Axxila was the closest planet he'd trust to land, and the easiest to catch the bypass from, but if they made it in one piece, they'd be very lucky. Rey and her new co-pilot would surely beat them there by hours if not a full day.

He said none of this to Finn. "ETA is in two days. I've set a path to conserve our fuel. We don't know how far we'll have to go once we reach Axxila."

Finn diligently watched him reset the course on the nav computer. He always watched Poe like that, like he was taking notes. He was doing much better with his flying lessons than Poe could have expected. Another journey after this one, and Poe would feel safe putting him inside an X-wing. Probably.

He sat beside Poe. "Two days?"

"Best we can do."

He could tell Finn wanted to contact Rey again, confirm she was okay. Ask about her new friend. Finn was as easy to see through as transparisteel. Poe kept himself closer, and among everything else he had to teach Finn, he would eventually have to show him the same trick. He didn't want to yet. He'd so rarely met someone as genuine as Finn remained, earnest and not afraid to show when he was scared, and full of sweet intensity over a girl he barely knew. Breaking his innocent openness would be a crime, and it would hurt him.

It bothered Poe more than he wanted to admit how much he wanted to protect this kid from being hurt.

"Tell me about your aunts," Finn said.

"Madame Luna and Madame Baltana? Nothing much to tell. They were friends with my mother when we lived on Yavin. They had us over all the time."

"Are they sisters?"

"Married. Madame Luna has a twin sister. I've never met her."

"Oh." That was a face. Finn had grown up with the First Order's strict notions. Who knew what they'd had to say to him about women who married each other? Or anything else?

"They seemed nice," said Finn. "Can I go with you when you visit them? I want to thank them for their help."

A warm feeling filled him. "Sure."

"I bet Rey would like to come along, too."

"Sure."

Finn's happy expression slipped. "You said you liked her."

"I do."

"Stop with the bantha poo. You're not fooling anyone."

He counted slowly. At the end of his count, he'd feel better. He reached ten, then twenty, then thirty. "I like your girlfriend just fine."

"She's not really my girlfriend. We're friends."

"She's your girlfriend." That much was clear. "You've been crazy about her ever since you met her, and she likes you back."

"You think so?"

"You two spent last night together. Don't tell me you just slept."

Finn looked away, and Poe thought he saw a warm red flush creeping over his face. "I was going to ask you about that."

"About what?"

Finn squirmed. "When I was in training, we had the sex talk pretty early. They didn't care if we slept with our fellow troopers. They just told us to keep our helmets on if we did."

"That's kinkier than I was expecting."

"Right? Phasma's got some issues." He laughed. "They didn't want us getting close, not emotionally. It's easier to leave a fallen comrade behind if you don't see him as your friend. I tried to make friends anyway. The holodramas said you ought to like someone as a person before you slept with them." Apparently the Stormtroopers never watched pornographic holovids.

Not for the first time, Poe wondered at this man. He was like a little bird who'd been raised in a dark box his whole life while longing for the sun, and who couldn't stop preening in the warm glow now that he was out here.

"I was thinking, you're pretty knowledgeable about…things. Do you have any advice for someone who isn't?" He'd screwed up his voice into a tight question, embarrassed by his own lack of experience. He wanted to know what to do. With her.

Poe checked the nav computer again. Two long days. "I can't tell you."

"Oh. All right."

"I can show you, though." He caught Finn's face in his hand and brought his chin in for a kiss, mouth parting under the first pressure. Finn gasped. But he didn't push him away.

Poe let himself enjoy this for the moment. Any time now, Finn would tell him to stop, and he would, and he'd toss it all off as a joke. He'd have this memory to take out for later.

"See," he said, breaking the kiss. "You start with a good kiss. Kissing indicates how you want to hold her, and how nimble your mouth is. That's going to be useful later. Start slow, and build up to the passionate ones."

"Right." Finn nodded, like this was a class, the way he always did. To Poe's amazement, he bent in with a soft kiss, gently nibbling with his own lips. Poe'd had better. This was nice, though. Very. He kept up a firm pressure on his side, letting his hands fall onto Finn's shoulders.

"Not your first kiss, then."

"The other night."

"Right." Curiosity was killing him. "How far did you get? Just so I know where to start the instruction."

"We didn't get farther than this. I, uh, I really liked the kissing." His skin was hot against Poe's face. No wonder he was desperate for some advice. Poe had known plenty of women, and men too, who would drop a man fast after he filled his own shorts. Rey wasn't leaving him over a misfire, but Rey wasn't here.

"That's just a matter of practice. Your first couple of times are going to go fast because you're not used to it. You can make things better by finishing yourself off once before you get started with her. That might be hard to explain."

"Yeah. 'Excuse me while I go into the 'fresher for about five minutes' isn't the most romantic line in the middle of the evening."

"You're looking for romance? That's a whole other Binspo game. Romance means dining and dancing, and spending time listening to her dreams."

"I don't think Rey's into that. Should I try?"

"No." Poe didn't think Finn's favorite scavenger would have much use for the usual trappings of romance. Or maybe she would. People were funny. Maybe Rey wanted nothing more than a chance to wear a glittery lanza silk gown and tiny, uncomfortable jeweled slippers as Finn, in a dark, tailored suit with a rich cape, swept her onto some dance floor.

Finn said, "Let's start with this. I can learn how to be sexy with her, and we can work on the romance later."

"You did not just say 'be sexy with her' right now. You didn't. And you never will again. Swear to me."

"Bad?"

"It's not good."

"Right. How should I talk to her about it?"

"Knowing you? Don't. You'll try to impress her and wind up claiming to be the long-lost Prince of Daimla."

Finn twitched his shoulders. "Just kissing?"

"Kissing is a great start."

Finn kissed him again, more passionately this time, testing the movement of his own mouth and exploring the shape of Poe's teeth. Poe was going to need a few private minutes in the 'fresher himself very soon.

"Good?"

"Good," said Poe.

"Show me more."

Thanking whatever stars had been in the sky the day he'd been born, Poe did.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do not read this chapter at work.

Luke had spent many years seeking out the written teachings of the fallen Jedi Order, scouring ruins and old libraries in search of scraps. He'd brought his treasured books and scrolls to the planet with his students, the planet Rey only remembered in flashes, and he'd set the apprentices to reading about their own history. The Jedi books were a mishmash of science and history, mysticism and philosophy of war. His most beloved student had read them all diligently.

Inside her mind now, Kylo read off for her the core principles of Jedi society. Between her legs, he did something with his tongue she was positive he felt even more deeply than she did by the way his thoughts stuttered around principle eight.

_"Swear to me your uncle didn't teach you lessons this way."_

_"I would have paid better attention."_

If he intended to kill her, tipping her delicately between dull lecture and delicious sensation was one of the nicer ways she could think of to go.

Principle nine was as boring as principle eight. _"We could go over the twelve approved meditation stances."_ He envisioned a series of drawings from an old tome, muscles and tendons lovingly rendered on unclad, nimble forms. _"This book was very popular among the older Padawans."_

His mouth and fingers pushed her up against her edge, swirling against aching nerves which he discovered one by one then explored with a single-minded intensity. _"The first stance,"_ he thought, in a droll monotone even in his own head, _"is the Spear. Straight form standing, hands at the sides, feeling the Force flowing into you from the ground up through your body."_

She lay back on the bunk, and allowed the Force to flow in through her, from the tips of her fingers to the curl of her toes against his back. The lesson droned away, filling her with dead teachings from dead Jedi Masters. This is the stance of the Reed, bending in a typhoon. This is the Bow, stretching muscles taut and back. Love and attachment were discouraged among the old Jedi, but in his mind she brushed the well-thumbed edge of an old page displaying the mutual meditation stance of the Joined Branches. Physical passion had no such taboo.

His lips hummed a song against her.

Life force filled her, grew, and exploded as Rey tumbled over into bliss. Rey pushed the energy into the engines, and she shouted as he went on, not stopping for breath, driving her to another peak, then a third, shoving the power they created between them further into the overworked turbine.

Show-off.

"We're going to ruin the engines if we keep spiking the capacitors this way," she said, pushing his face away. Breathing was hard. Thinking was harder when both heads were swimming and she no longer knew who had what thought. In ten seconds, or whenever his knees worked, Kylo would join her on the bunk and finish himself inside her or against her belly, and he wasn't sure which he wanted more.

He hoisted his body up with his arms and crawled over her until their faces were together and he was hard against her leg. In his mind, she saw the names of more ancient meditation stances and with them the static images of graceful bodies bending longingly towards each other forever across the pages.

"Let's ruin the engines."

* * *

The _Falcon_ hid within the radar-scrambling field of asteroids Chewie had located. High enough iron content, low enough power on their systems, and Leia could watch, breath held, as the First Order patrol passed close enough for her to see them, distant pricks of floating malevolence traveling in a slow arc against the starry background.

Her son could be on one of the pursuit vessels. Finished with Luke, he could chase her now, aiming to complete his personal mission of orphaning himself. She'd never understood why he left, what Snoke must have said or done. She only guessed, and wondered, and grieved.

Like a clear path to yesterday, she remembered the first time Luke had sent the transmission that Ben had stolen Ezra's ship and run off. "He left a note. He says he'll be back in a few days."

Han's face had worn the worry she'd felt. "What happened?"

Luke's expression had turned to a mild guilt. "He asked about his grandfather."

"And you told him?" Leia had been furious with Ben and with Luke. Anakin Skywalker had died during the purge. The dark demon who'd risen in his place had nothing to do with her.

Luke had said, "I won't lie to him."

"Learn," Han had said, and they'd argued for a while, nothing painful said, nothing permanently scarred. Ben had returned to the school several days later, unharmed and more thoughtful and accepting the punishment Luke set out for him. They'd all believed it was finished.

He'd run away again a little over a year later. They lost him from the ifs.

If he hadn't left before, they'd have been more worried from the outset.

If Han hadn't said, "What did you tell him this time?" If Leia hadn't guessed the answer before Luke could say and shouted at him, half from anger, half from fear that her son had run off mistakenly believing Luke was his biological father. If Luke hadn't snapped, annoyed with them both, that he hadn't needed to say anything because Ben had read everything in Han's mind, and Luke had told Han about a million times that he needed to learn to shield.

If they hadn't quarreled about whose fault this was, if they'd begun the search immediately instead of waiting several days to let Ben cool off and let one another cool off, if if if. If one decision had been different, perhaps everything would have changed. They could have found Ben. They could have brought him home. They could have saved him from his own dark impulses, and saved those poor kids at the school, and saved each other from falling apart from the guilt and the resentment at the choices they'd all made.

If.

If wishes were raindrops, the desert would be an ocean. Luke always used to quote his uncle's favorite proverb before getting back to whatever task he didn't want to do.

Leia watched the ships pass by, and she listened in vain for the echo of her child's bitter thoughts.

She knew the patrol couldn't hear her across the vacuum. She whispered anyway. "They always travel in two sets. The first patrol will be followed by another. We lost a lot of good pilots before we learned that."

Chewie said they'd had their own run-ins with the Order. Sometimes they traveled in threes.

"Then we'll wait."

She'd been trying not to ask. She'd been desperate not to think, to feel. But she sat in this old ship, and she was alone with her memories and with the last person alive in the whole galaxy who understood.

"Where have you two been these last couple of years?" She read the hurt look on his face, and added, "That wasn't an accusation. I missed you. I missed both of you. I'd like to know what you've been doing." Chewie waited patiently. "Fine. I want to know how he was towards the end. You said you'd watch out for him for me, and you did. Someone had to. Thank you." He nodded. "Tell me. Tell me about where you've been, what you've seen. We're here for a while."

And Chewbacca would never tell another soul if he saw her cry.

* * *

"Were you going to tell me you have a crush on me?"

Poe froze. Finn hit him with what he hoped was a friendly rather than a creepy stare. Poe said, "You might be reading this situation wrong."

"I'm not."

He wasn't great with interpersonal stuff. He would be the first to admit that. The caretakers in the First Order's crèches kept a cool distance between themselves and their charges. He'd grown up with only the faintest memories of what it was to be hugged or held. He'd been taught emotion was a weakness, and desire was something to be quenched hygienically. He'd never had a date, and he'd been punished for spending time with his few friends. Yet for some reason he didn't understand, all that had done was make him more eager to learn, eager to meet people, eager to connect and discover for himself what he was missing.

In a lot of ways, he knew himself to be like a young child, which was an unfortunate thought to have when his pants were on the floor and his shirt was somewhere over thataway.

"You like me."

"Of course I like you. We're friends."

"Naked friends."

"Right." A warm, red flush had bloomed over Poe's whole body.

"I don't get it. Why are you embarrassed? I'm supposed to be the one who doesn't do feelings."

"Finn, I don't think you could stop doing feelings if someone held a lightsaber to your groin."

He winced. "I never was good at the emotionless, soulless killer part."

"Worst Stormtrooper ever."

"Yeah. But you're not. You like people." Finn hadn't spent much time with the Resistance, and even then he'd had his friendly babysitter keeping an eye on him, but he'd seen the smiles and the greetings. If Poe hadn't at least kissed half the people he talked to, Finn would eat his old helmet.

"Sure. People are great. I have a lot of fun, and I try to make sure whoever I'm with does, too."

Finn couldn't deal with his own confusion about this. Poe sounded like Phasma's pet project come to life, but he knew that wasn't true. "So what's so hard about admitting how you actually feel? It can't be all sex, can it?"

His face went through a few expressions, passing through an easy blowoff, and back to his regular self, the half-smile Poe wore when he didn't think anyone was watching him. "Your old pals were right on one thing. Emotions lead to trouble. Sure, I can share my bunk with someone cute, and we'll both have a good time, but if I have to lead that pilot into a mission the next day, I can't be worried if they're going to get killed. I have to focus on the mission. I'd be useless to the cause if I spent my time thinking about how to keep someone special safe."

Mission. Cause. "You're right. That's no different from what I grew up hearing." He slid off the bunk. They hadn't gotten far before his question, and his pants were right there.

"You asked me to show you. I didn't ask you." That stung, a little. Not because the words were angry, or even because they were true, but because Finn hated being led around.

"You didn't ask me because you're scared."

"You have a girlfriend. Which you've mentioned several dozen times."

"She's not my girlfriend. She's just...."

"You love her."

Finn made to push away the question, but he'd never been able to hide his emotions. Worst. Worst ever. He should receive a plaque of some sort. Other Stormtroopers would learn his designation in their history lessons: don't be this guy. "Yeah."

Poe's face moved again. Finn was terrible at reading expressions. Too many masks. "Then be happy you have a girlfriend and that you're in love with someone who likes you back."

"Is there some rule that says you can only feel things for one person? I mean, we weren't supposed to like anyone, but that was stupid, too. Does everyone else just pair off in twos like in the holovids?"

"A lot of people do. Humans do most of the time, unless you're on Corellia. Not everyone."

Finn sat on the bunk again. He had his pants, but hadn't put them back on again. He was circling around concepts because he didn't have the words for it all. He'd hoped his new friends would help him out, but Rey was elsewhere and Poe was evasive. As usual, if Finn wanted to know something, he'd have to find out on his own.

"So I have a girlfriend." He couldn't help it. He grinned. He had a girlfriend! "I'm crazy about her, and I think she's amazing, and she has all these skills I never even dreamed of, and she likes me even though I was the worst Stormtrooper ever and I can't do anything she does."

"Right," said Poe, voice tight.

"And I've got an amazing friend who has all these skills I've never dreamed of, and he likes me even though, you know, worst."

"Worst ever," Poe agreed, and something in his face warmed again, like the sun peering over the horizon seeing if it was safe to come up in the morning.

"So if I say you're both important to me, then what is the problem? Because I don't see a problem, and no one will tell me why there is one." Finn watched him this time, waiting him out.

"Emotions make things complicated. Something quick and easy," he stroked Finn's arm, "and there's no hard feelings later. What if you change your mind? What if Rey gets back and says you have to choose?"

"We'll talk. We'll all talk. People talk, right?" He wasn't sure about this, especially having observed Poe not talk about things, and General Organa refuse to talk about anything, and Rey being afraid to say something that would wind up getting her hurt. "Do any of you talk? I'm not the only one?"

Poe's hand found his face. "You talk enough for all of us." He leaned in for a kiss. "Can we stick with, yes, I think you're cute and I'd like to get to know you better? I think you're different from anyone I've ever met, and I can't decide if you're another naive little fluffken pecking at my toes, or something completely new. And I do like you."

"Good." Finn pressed his mouth against Poe's lips, enjoying this. He dropped his pants, and he hoped he'd be able to find them again later.

"You really want to learn how to make this work?"

"More than anything."

"You start with touching." Finn expected a hand at his groin but instead there were gentle fingers on his arms, and slipping behind him to knead at the sore muscles on his shoulders. Poe pushed him to lie back on the bunk, and he draped his body over Finn's like a blanket. The warm pressure sent shivers through his body, and he hissed as he felt the length of Poe's prick line up with his. "You do it, too. Remember, every inch of skin feels good."

Finn let his fingers wander over Poe's arms and down his sides, amused when he jumped at the tickle. He reached down and stroked his hips.

"Like that?"

"Like that."

They kissed again, and that felt good, matched with the tender stroke of his friend's fingers against his throat before Poe broke the kiss to place tender marks against the skin on Finn's neck. He inched his mouth up and kissed his ear. "Every inch."

The other night eased forward in his memory. He'd held her, side by side on the bunk they almost fell out of, and he remembered holding her hand, clutching to her fingers as she taught him the shape and feel of her mouth, as he felt her chest pressed against him under their constrictive clothes.

Nothing was between him and Poe here. On instinct, he took Poe's hand and kissed the palm. Poe's eyes shut and he wriggled.

This caused an immediate problem.

"No," Finn moaned, feeling his body betray himself again, the sizzle up his spine muted by his horror. He threw his head back on the pillow and groaned in frustration.

"It's okay." Poe's hand found him then, and that felt so good. Poe kissed him through the rest of his stupid orgasm, stroking with a knowing pressure. Finn twitched again and again, and lay still. Before he could apologize, or fall through the floor of the ship, Poe knelt down and, with tender laps against the sensitive head of his prick and the skin of his belly, he cleaned up the sticky mess as Finn absorbed the new sensations.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not a problem. It's why we're doing this." This time his kiss was salty, and thick with a taste Finn had only let himself try once, shamefully and alone.

"You're not done."

"I'm fine. Next lesson. If you manage to get your partner there first, you don't always have to go for it yourself."

That seemed counterproductive. Poe joined him on the pillow. His face had returned to that half-smile Finn liked. He reached out, returning to his previous explorations, sleepier now. His friend's skin was warm under his hand as he traced patterns over the expanse of bare, smooth flesh covering torso and hipbone. Small scars stood out in the low light of the cabin, pale pockmarks from old injuries. Finn counted each one with the tip of a curious finger, tracing the constellations of his friend's life.

He wanted to explain that he wasn't as innocent and foolish as Poe thought. He'd seen his comrades at arms naked in the shared sonic showers, and he'd watched the racier holovids and flimsies that got passed around like contraband in the barracks. He knew his own body well enough, and like everyone who'd ever shared sleeping quarters, he'd learned how to finish himself without making any sound. But it was all remote need and unaimed desire, at best fantasizing to the memory of a grainy holographic face thrown back in acted ecstacy.

This was different. This was personal and intimate, feeling the warmth radiating from another nude body, sensing the pull towards another soul. He'd felt an instant rapport with this man, and yes, had fallen in love with Rey the instant he'd met her even though she'd spent their first moments together ready to pound him into the sand with her staff. Emotions added a heady dimension to everything he thought he'd known, sending Finn spinning off in new directions.

He kissed Poe again.

"We have two days. No reason not to enjoy them."

* * *

Exhaustion had claimed her at last. He'd napped several times between their lessons and their more interesting exertions, but Rey had remained half-awake the entire time they'd been on the ship. She didn't trust him. Understandable. She'd kept an eye out on watch across the hours, some part of her always ready to fight and defend if he turned on her. This was the start of their third day together. He doubted she'd left behind her convictions that this was temporary, that he was dangerous. She was simply too tired to stay awake any longer.

For the moment, he relished the rarest of all moments, the first time in years he could remember existing alone inside his own mind. Other voices had always beckoned, or scolded, or lurked as a deep presence and constant reminder of his Master's hold on him. Even here in the depths between the stars he could feel Snoke's long mental fingers probing for him, while Kylo hid within himself and allowed the search to pass him by. These last few days, there'd been no room between the two of them for anyone else to edge inside their thoughts.

Beside him, Rey made breathless little sleep noises as her eyes moved under her lids.

She was lovely as she slept. He felt slow and stupid for taking this long to notice that her face and her smile and her desert-lean frame were attractive in themselves. The aura of her power had numbed him to anything else. His desire for her gifts and his recoil at the Light emanating from her both muted his notice of her physical features. He saw her now. Rey was a beautiful thing.

Kylo broke beautiful things.

In many ways, he was a terrible fit for the First Order. They sought to impose order on a disorganized galaxy, while he found the source of his power in chaos and anger and the erotic noises of breaking metal and glass and bone. He bowed his head when he needed to, and he gave lip service to order, and had none even inside himself, destroying lovely creations for the sake of watching them burn.

Curiously, having been given multiple direct orders to destroy Rey, all he wanted was to bend her into the perfect shape of the Order's ideals. A different destruction, perhaps.

She knew -- she had to know, she couldn't help but read his thoughts -- that he trained her now to forge her into his own weapon. She must see he had no interest in changing his own well-trodden path, that given the need he would turn her or strike her down. That he should end her now, while she lay sleeping, warm and bare under the shared blanket. Dreaming.

Kylo dipped into her dream.

The images he saw fractured into each other, jumping and merging. He saw her water planet, overlaid with the knowledge of its truth. Luke was there, and in her dream, he was tall and wise and powerful and handsome. Kylo hadn't known about her crush until this moment. Luke shattered into a thousand pieces, and the traitorous Stormtrooper stood there, FN-2187, bare-faced and angry and hurt.

"What are you doing?" FN-2187 asked Rey, but in her dream she could only keep wandering the huge coastline of the island, searching. "I love you."

"I'm sorry," she said, and repeated the words again and again while she searched for a sword. "I'm sorry. I love you. I'm sorry." She tried to kiss him, but FN-2187 turned away from her.

He shook himself free of Rey's dream, uncomfortable in the thick, clinging cobwebs of her sleeping thoughts. She dreamed about the Stormtrooper and in her dream, she loathed herself for what she'd done with her new lover. He felt the hatred rolling off her.

It seemed he'd already begun cracking her into pieces.

He could damage her further. His own arousal stirred the blanket. It would be the simplest thing to wrap his body around hers, slide himself deep into her, and wake her from her dream of her Stormtrooper to the reality of her pleasure. She would writhe beneath him, unable to keep back her own passion even as she ached for another, and she'd come with her soul torn.

As though she heard his thought, and there was a strong chance she did, Rey let out a soft sob, a sound she'd never admit to making when awake. She rolled, seeking out the other source of heat in the bunk, curling against him in her sleep, and sinking deeper into sleep past the level of unpleasant dreams and into pure unconsciousness. The sad line on her face smoothed out.

It had grown colder in the ship. This was the reason he gave himself for wrapping his arms closer around his enemy, and letting her sleep.

* * *

Axxila was all city. Finn's earliest memories were of the First Order crèche, hidden underground in land-based facilities that changed from time to time. They'd never been told why the children all had to line up, sometimes in the midst of a lesson, sometimes in the middle of the night, file quietly into an antiseptic transport, and be moved to another subterranean facility. Classrooms and sleeping units dispersed each time during the moves. Friends from one location never followed to the same assigned rooms in the next. Everything was cast in that peculiar artificial light that never felt like sunshine.

He'd grown up inside, taken out when he was older for extensive training ops, bunking under the sky to teach him on-site strategy and to remove the ingrained agoraphobia.

Finn had never seen a city.

Spires towered around them, scraping the sky with metal fingers. Ships flew between them, skipping from one tall peak to the next with their cargo and passengers. Around him here on the ground, a huge mass of life surged and moved, bent on their own tasks. Ground transports whizzed by.

"Great, huh?" Poe said. "I visited Coruscant a couple of times when I was a kid. It's not so different."

"How does everyone know where to go?" Where he came from, you followed your orders and you marched where you were told. He knew other people outside the Order didn't do that, but he couldn't imagine how they didn't all crash into one another.

"You keep your eyes open, and you go where you need to be." Poe grabbed his hand and they hopped an open transport, stepping onto a sliding pavement that whipped them along with hundreds of other life forms. The cold, rushing air slapped him in the face.

"How do we even find the spaceport where she's docking?"

"We ask." Poe hopped over onto another row of speeding pavement. Finn followed him, tripping, then put upright by his friend's steady hand. Poe tapped in the name of the spaceport Rey had transmitted an hour ago, right after they'd docked their own ship. "Four kilometers in this direction, then twenty storeys up. We're in luck."

Finn watched everything as they sped along. He saw a Halosian casually reading a newsprint, the film rustling in the breeze. Two small Twi'leks played with each other as their mother checked the time, and nudged them towards an outer pavement. Beings of every shape and size waited for their stops, most in business attire or what Finn was starting to think was the current fashion.

He let his mind open a little. He wasn't sure about this. Force-sensitive, Luke had said, but Luke hadn't said anything else and all his focus had been on training Rey. Finn had thought being a Jedi was like being left-handed: either you were or you weren't. Maybe it wasn't that simple. Maybe it was like being able to play the vibronium. There were naturals, born to make music, and there were people with enough talent that they could learn to be okay given a lot of practice.

He tuned up his mental vibronium, and he listened. "They're scared."

"Who?"

"Everyone." The people around him, except the two little Twi'leks being shuffled to their exit by their mom, all had a line of anxiety flowing through them. Words floated unspoken, so loud even he could hear them: Republic, First Order, invasion, destruction.

"No one knows what's coming next," said Poe. "They're going to be concerned."

Stormtroopers. "I think the Order has been here. Some of them are really worried."

"Well, we're not staying. Our ship needs repairs and fuel, which we can't pay for. We'll hop Rey's ship, and we'll get off world as soon as we can." He placed a comforting hand on Finn's shoulder. "It will be fine."

Finn tried to believe him. He was eager to see Rey again, and find out for himself that she was okay. Things made sense when she was nearby. They could come up with a plan, and they could rejoin the fleet.

"This is our stop."

He stumbled getting off the sliding pavement, but again, Poe helped, keeping a steady hand on his elbow as they walked. The spaceport was twenty floors up from here. Just as they were about to grab an open elevating lift, another popped open.

"Rey!" Finn slipped out from under Poe's hand to dash over to her. She had already ducked out of the slim gap to hurry towards him.

The door slid the rest of the way open. Kylo Ren stood there. Finn's feet tried to run in opposite directions from each other. He settled for grabbing Rey's arm to run.

Poe yanked his blaster out and fired.

Ren raised his hand, pausing the shot. "You have to have noticed that never works." His hand was at his belt, reaching for his lightsaber.

"Wait!" Rey pulled from Finn's grip and stood close to the frozen beam, blocking the three of them. "Do not kill him."

"Why the hell not?" Finn demanded, but he saw she was turning to Ren. Who moved his hand away from his belt.

"This is a truce, and we are about to attract a lot of attention. Move and let it hit," she said to Ren. He spent a second not doing either, then tilted away, allowing the blast to strike harmlessly behind him into the empty lift car.

Poe had his blaster aimed. "Rey, get back. There are three of us. We can take him."

"No one is taking anything. Truce. He's helping us."

"He doesn't help people!" Finn nearly shouted. Attention. There were Stormtroopers around here somewhere, and their boss was right there. With Rey. Who was telling them all not to kill each other.

Poe stayed where he was. "You know what he is, Rey."

"I don't even know what I am now," said Ren.

Only Finn saw Rey roll her eyes. "We need to get out of public. There's a lot of First Order chatter over the comms. They don't know we're here, but they're searching."

Finn gestured. "Do you think?"

"We'll take the ship to another world," said Ren. "Come on." He'd already dismissed Finn and Poe. He wasn't wearing his normal I-am-the-darkness cape and outfit, but instead was dressed in ill-fitted clothes. Nevertheless, Finn knew he was swishing his cape in his head as he turned.

"No," Rey said. "I told you, the engine is shot. We barely landed. The capacitors are blown, and it'll take a two week overhaul to fix. We need a different ship."

"We've got a ship," said Finn. "She needs some small repairs, and she's out of fuel. Do you have any credits?" He took her hand. None of the rest of this made sense, but he felt better touching her. 

"No more than I had back on Yavin." He felt her touch his mind, a quick flash he wasn't expecting, like a kiss on the mental cheek. 

"We'll figure it out," Poe said. "Rey, let's go."

She looked at Ren. "We can fuel and repair their ship easier than we can ours. All we have to do is convince the dockyard to fix and refuel for us."

"Easily done. Where is the ship?"

"He's not coming." Finn squeezed her hand. "There's no way."

She pulled her hand away. "Finn, at this moment, I am either going with all three of you, or I am going by myself. We need his help, and he needs ours."

Poe said, "If we kill him, that helps us a lot."

Rey let out a sad smile. "If you kill him, you'll kill us both. We are connected. I don't like it, but there's not much I can do about it now. Once we're done with this mission, I can research ways to break the link, and if you want to shoot Kylo then, that's fine with me."

We. Ours. Us. _Kylo?_

"You and I need to talk," said Finn.

"We do, but not here. Let's get to your ship, order the repairs, and find a quiet place where we can avoid attention. Poe? Are you going to help?"

"Tell me why."

Ren said, "Supreme Leader Snoke has been culling Force-sensitives for some time. He's consuming them and taking their power for his own." Finn fought his shudder. He'd only seen Snoke as an overwhelming hologram, and the guy gave him the creeps. "He intended me to bring my uncle to him. I can only imagine he planned to consume both of us."

"Luke Skywalker is dead, thanks to you. Your boss can eat you alive for all I care."

"He'd like to, and he'd have Rey for dessert. But right now, the Order has been given another mission after the failure of my previous task. The _Millennium Falcon_ was spotted in a nearby sector, and all ships are on the lookout with orders to capture. Lord Snoke is inviting my mother to dinner."

"What the hell does that matter to you? Upset you can't kill her first?"

Rey pushed her arms out between them, and both took a step back. "We need to find the General before the First Order does. Even cloaked, he'll be able to find her. I can't."

Poe lowered his arm. "Fine. We'll get the ship ready. We'll find her."

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

"I can fix most of it," Rey said from inside the panel. "I can modify the pieces from our ship and patch them in. But this," she said, dropping a burnt out regulator, "I won't be able to replace."

Poe nodded. "I felt the regulator going during the last leg here. We can buy a new one." If they had any money, which they didn't. "We'll need more fuel. What about your fuel cells?"

"Almost empty. We pushed our ship here with the Force half the way." She focused on the open panel. Poe didn't know Rey well, but knew a 'don't ask' expression when he saw one. She stared at the parts, then nodded to Ren, who turned and walked out, dropping his knapsack by the door.

"Where's he going?" Finn asked, ready to follow and bring him back.

"It's fine," Rey said. "I sent him back to the other ship for the parts. He'll sell the rest for scrap. That will pay for our fuel."

Finn said, "We can't just let him go off by himself. He'll turn us in to the first Stormtrooper he sees."

"You're selling your stolen ship?" Poe asked her. They hadn't even spoken. "How does he even know what the parts are?"

"No, he won't. Yes, we are." She twisted a screw until it fell out into her hand. "He used to help repair the _Falcon_. It's fine. We need the parts and we need the money. Hold this." She handed him the front half of the microcompressor before pulling out the filter. "This just needs cleaned."

"Finn," Poe said. "Clean the lady's filter."

But Finn had already walked out.

* * *

Catching up with Ren wasn't easy. Finn had trouble figuring out the sliding pavements, and he huffed his way to Ren's side.

"Did Dameron decide I need a guard?"

"No," said Finn, not liking how out of breath he was as he puffed the word. "I don't trust you not to turn us in."

"You realize they're back there wondering if we've both just defected back to the First Order."

Finn hadn't considered this. "They know me better. They know I won't."

"They've known you less than a month. You've spent all of three days in Rey's company. How well do you think you know her, or she knows you?" Ren continued his brisk pace, long strides forcing Finn to hurry to keep up.

"I know her well enough to know she and I are a lot alike." He pushed Ren on the arm. For a second, he saw him reach for his weapon. He felt a hand inside his head. Both were gone in a blink, and he felt Ren's voice mutter inside him contemptuously, _"Truce."_

Finn went on. "Neither of us has a family. Neither of us knows where we came from. And both of us learned to deal with refuse. But that's the difference. See, Rey's a scavenger. Her job was to look for hidden value in whatever junk she found, and try to find use for a piece of worthless trash. My job was to get rid of the garbage." He poked Ren. "You're the garbage, in case that wasn't clear."

Ren touched his head for a moment. A second after that, Finn felt Rey in his mind, with an irritated _"Get back here."_

_"No,"_ he thought.

Ren sighed in an annoyed fashion Finn had seen more than once. "Fine. Walk faster. Weren't you trained to march?"

"When this truce is over, I'm going to enjoy shooting you."

* * *

Rey wouldn't admit how worried she was until at last Finn and Kylo returned safely with the parts. No deaths, no injuries. She could worry about what they'd talked about later. She and Poe had kept their conversation strictly on the repairs. His mind had started out shielded, the way Luke had taught him, but his thoughts had drifted, and she'd seen.

She could worry about a lot of things later.

"How much did you get for the ship?"

"Sixteen thousand," Kylo said, placing the credit slip into her hand. "We picked up the regulator. There's eleven thousand left."

"He Jedied the buyer," said Finn. "I want to learn that."

"Mind control?" Poe grabbed the credit slip. "I'll order the fuel."

"They'll be loading that for hours," Rey said, taking the parts. "Once I get these in, we'll need charge time on the batteries. We're here at least overnight." She bent to her task, quickly reconfiguring the pieces. Without speaking, Kylo bent in beside her and did the same. They finished just as Poe came back.

"We can't stay on the ship," he said. "There's enough left here for a meal and a night somewhere cheap."

Finn looked at Rey. "Can't you Jedi us a room somewhere?"

"No more mind control," said Poe.

"We could have real food and real beds."

At his winsome face, Poe relented. "Fine." Finn wanted to learn the Jedi mind trick, but Rey suspected he'd developed his very own.

They found a hotel not far from the spaceport. "You two stay here," Rey said.

She kept herself from gaping in awe at the lobby. Crystal chandeliers lit the ceilings, and thick carpets piled over the marble floor. Serving droids wandered the fancy lounge area with drinks and nibbles. Fine music she'd only heard in holovids tinkled tastefully in the background. Around her, she saw wealth and finery on display, in the gemstones around beings with two or three long, graceful necks, and tasteful, web-delicate fabrics draping huge and wispy bodies of every kind.

A Nautolan, wearing a casual bracelet on one arm worth more than everything Rey had scavenged in her entire life, stared down its green nose at her outfit. She'd packed her desert garb into her own knapsack, but the borrowed clothes she wore were hardly better.

"This is a lot more than we can afford."

"It's perfect." Before she could dart out, Kylo grabbed her arm. Rey walked with him unhappily to the concierge, and she only knew that was the word because she heard it inside Kylo's mind.

_"Play along."_

In a bright voice light years away from his usual dour tone, Kylo said, "This is so exciting! Can you believe we came all the way to Axxila for our honeymoon?"

"I'm excited," Rey said, mimicking his enthusiasm.

The concierge clearly agreed with Rey's earlier assessment. "Are you sure sir and madame are in the correct hotel?"

"Of course. We have a reservation." She felt Kylo push him as he spoke.

"You have a reservation," said the concierge. "What's the name?"

"Bail Naberrie." He smiled, and Rey hid her shudder as she watched him play friendly to someone he was thinking about Force choking. She could picture the grey face turning purple and dying on the floor in Kylo's lurid imagination. "You see it right in front of you."

_"That's the worst undercover name I've ever heard. The Naberries are famous. Everyone has seen the holodrama."_

She felt his affronted pride even as he maintained the pleasant smile. _"That holodrama was entirely fictitious."_

_"They don't know that. I didn't know that. But I know who that family is. This is a 'your family' thing, isn't it? And so is Bail. That's an Alderaanian name. You get a grumble in your mind every time you think about your family."_

_"I'm sure you've had plenty of experience going undercover in the sand dunes of Jakku."_

_"I know better than to name myself after famous people! Next time pick something anonymous like Antilles."_

"And Mrs. Naberrie's name? For our records?"

Rey put on a matching false smile. "Ishie. Oh, wow. I'm finally Mrs. Ishie Antilles, I mean, Naberrie!"

"Congratulations, ma'am."

"We'd like a suite," said Kylo. "Make it nice. We'll want room service covered." He handed over the credit slip, and took it back again without letting go. "Now I've paid you. You'll record that."

"I'll record that, Mr. Naberrie. Here's your access cards." Rey grabbed them from the man's hand. "Room 2056. The lifts are to your left. Please allow our droids to carry your baggage."

"We'll manage," said Rey. Leaving the dazed man behind them, they returned to the street. "You are terrible at subterfuge. Don't you know any normal people?"

"Fine. The next time we're on the run together from the First Order and pretending to be married, I'll call myself Owen Antilles. Happy, dear?"

They turned a corner and found the others. "We've got a room. Let's get off the street."

* * *

Poe recognized their problem instantly. "We can't stay here." The two idiots had reserved a huge suite on the eightieth floor, complete with a sofa and lounge with tables, a small food preparation area, a refresher the size of the first house he'd lived in, and one large bed piled with enough pillows to sleep half the Resistance.

Finn said instantly, "Yes, yes we can." He threw himself onto the large, soft mattress that dominated the room and buried his face in three pillows. "We can stay here forever."

"You said 'nice,'" Rey said to Ren, and sat on the bed wearily. A moment later she flopped backwards, and had enough space not to bump Finn.

He wanted to argue, but the two little fluffkens had never slept in a real bed before. The bunks back on the _Falcon_ were as close as they'd come. Both sets of eyes had already closed in bliss. Had it just been the three of them, Poe would have joined them for a nap. But they had another guest.

Ren gave the pair a look, then went to the comm pad. "Menu." He scanned it and pressed a dozen selections. Poe didn't have a chance to see what was on order before Ren sent the lot. Great. They'd wind up eating Ewok eyes or something worse. Ren also dialed in a music channel at low volume, a slow keybed piece Poe vaguely remembered from years ago, soft and haunting.

Poe nudged Finn. "Don't go to sleep yet."

"I'm not sleeping. I'm committing this to memory for when we're back in the barracks." He expected to get home, which was more than Poe expected at this point.

"Rey?"

"Same."

"Both of you up now. Go for a walk. Chat."

Rey's eyes opened and for a moment she stared at Poe, or something did. He wasn't sure who was looking out from behind her eyes. Madame Luna had always been fond of the saying, 'if you invite the Devil into your house, don't be surprised if he stays a while.' The lesson and warning to her favorite almost-nephew repeated over and over in Poe's head. Part of him hoped they both heard him.

"I'm not sure I should leave you two alone," she said.

"We'll be fine," said Poe.

"You have to swear to me not to kill him."

Poe said, "I promise."

But she was looking at Ren. He rolled his eyes, but she nodded as if he'd said yes.

"Come on, Finn. Let's talk."

Finn grumbled as he got out of the oversized bed. "We can talk here."

"No, we can't."

* * *

Finn expected to head back out into the overwhelming city. Instead, Rey walked just ahead of him, peering around her until she found her way to the restaurant at the top of the hotel, one hundred dizzying storeys up. They found the entrance, only to discover the entire room was surrounded by windows looking out into the shimmering evening lights of the city. Finn gulped down his acrophobia and followed Rey.

The other patrons were dressed much finer than they were. There were stares. Rey ignored them, leading Finn to a table near the back where an older Bothan couple sat chatting over the remains of their meal.

She told them, "You're finished. You're tired and want to go back to your room."

The two men blinked at her, then slowly rose from their seats, heading off together. Rey sat down. "There. They even left the bread." She grabbed a piece, taking a look out the closest window where Axxila glittered as though encrusted with gems.

Finn sat down across from her. "You made them leave?"

"I wanted this seat. They were finished."

"You Jedied them."

"You said you wanted to learn how. I can try to show you." Her smile was kind and open, but there was an arrogant tone under her words which hadn't been there before. She made a face at the bread.

"Later." He took some of the leftover bread, and discovered the same unpleasant taste she had. "I thought rich people food would taste better."

"So did I." She played with her sour bread, tearing it into bits on the abandoned plate in front of her. When he'd met her, she'd been on the edge of starvation, and wouldn't have rejected a single scrap, no matter how stale. "We could order something."

"Room service is coming." Ren had done the ordering, though. Finn figured the upper levels of Command dined on birds' tongues and rare wines.

"They don't," Rey said.

"You're getting creepy with the mind-reading."

"Sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all. "It's more convenient. People don't say half of what they mean. If I want to know something, I like being able to tell when they're lying, or what they're leaving out."

"Yeah, but people have a right to do that. I hate being lied to as much as you do. I grew up being lied to. It's not right listening in just because you can. Maybe some people have good reasons to lie." He saw her face. "In case you've forgotten, we're at war. Your new friend tortured you and Poe both to get information neither of you wanted to give up."

"I know."

"You can't trust him."

"I know that, too."

"Because Ren's changing you, and I'm worried."

Rey started to protest. Then she stopped. "I need to learn what I can from him now. He's the only one left who knows anything about the Jedi."

"That's because he killed everyone else. I don't want you to be next."

"He's not going to kill me. He thinks about it, but he won't. He's too self-centered." Her mouth quirked. "He's afraid it would kill him. As long as we're bonded like this, he's obligated to keep me alive and unharmed."

Harm was relative, Finn thought behind the small shields he did have. Kylo Ren might not want Rey dead, but a Rey turned away from the Light and set to rule the galaxy by Ren's side as a Dark Queen would be a far greater tragedy. Finn had no doubt this was part of the overall plan, and right now, he couldn't say Rey was against the idea.

"I'm not in love with Kylo, Finn. I don't even like him." She took Finn's hands. "He's not like you. You're kind, and you're brave even when you don't want to be. You're the first real friend I've ever had."

"You want to be friends?"

"I think it's a wonderful perfect place to start." She crinkled into a smile. For one happy moment, Rey was the same girl he'd stolen a ship with and walked back into Hell for. Maybe his girlfriend, definitely his friend, and Finn couldn't even count how lucky he was to have two best friends. But that was why they needed to talk.

She said, "You should go ahead and say what you're worried about saying."

Her face was too kind, too open, too practiced.

Finn pulled his hands away and sat back. "Whose mind?"

"What?"

"Whose mind did you read? You already know what I'm about to say. Did you read me or him?"

Her expression changed to puzzlement. "Does it matter? It's fine. It was a long voyage. You were lonely, and Poe clearly adores you. I'm not angry. I'm not even surprised."

Around them, the wealthier patrons of the restaurant went on with their meals and their conversations. Expensive foods drifted intoxicating scents through the room, catching on the low candlelight at each table. Soft music played. Beyond the tables, couples of half a dozen species danced slowly in near-darkness. Any other time, this would have been a wonderful venue for their first date, a romantic moment stolen between battles by two like souls who'd found each other by sheer luck. They could look back on the night for years to come, and sigh about the one perfect evening that started it all.

Rey was gorgeous in the dim sparkle of the muted lights, and she'd just said she didn't mind at all that he'd had a fun couple of days in bed with his other best friend. She was offering simple affection, and didn't even see the need for forgiveness.

He ought to feel grateful. He wondered if that thought was his own. Watching her from across the table, Finn didn't know who was speaking to him. 

He said, "Let's go back upstairs. The food should be there, and if we're lucky, Poe will have already shot Kylo Ren."

"He hasn't," she said, sliding out of her seat. "Kylo's been teasing me about killing Poe the whole time we've been here, but Poe's fine."

Finn hid the clench on his face but he didn't close his mind in time.

"Don't be that way," she said. "I wanted to keep an ear open in case they started fighting."

"Great." 

They reached their room right before the food cart. His mood wasn't improved when the delivery droids offered their droll congratulations to "Mr. and Mrs. Naberrie" along with a complimentary bottle of blossom wine for the celebration of their honeymoon.

"Thank you," said Ren, smiling and pretending to be a normal person. Creep. "Bring three more bottles."

"Of course, sir," said the lead droid.

Poe scowled at the multiple carts of food. "I'm not eating it, whatever it is."

Finn considered making the same stand, but after smelling so much food in the restaurant, he was famished. "It's not going to be poisoned. If he wanted us dead, he'd have Force-choked us."

"True," Ren said, opening the first dish. His face lit up at the pile of bite-sized pastries, and he immediately popped one into his mouth.

Rey stood beside him. "What's that?"

"Try one." Ren grabbed another and held it in front of her mouth until she took a bite. Finn looked away, and noticed Poe also watching them.

"At least they're speaking out loud," Finn said. "Come on." He opened another dish, and found a pile of piping hot meat slices with a small dish of sauce. His stomach let him know he wasn't even pretending to care if the meal was Baked Human.

At last, Poe was tempted. "Is that Brualki?"

Finn filled a plate with everything he could see, sat on the floor, and dug in. "I take it back. Rich people food is delicious."

"This isn't rich people food," said Poe. "This is just food."

Rey finished the bite in her mouth. "You mean people eat like this all the time?"

"Not as much as this."

Ren said, "I was laying in supplies for the next stage. We'll need food for tomorrow." He took a large bite of something wrapped in a flatbread, and Finn discovered the most fearsome threat in the galaxy chewed with his mouth open. Still a creep. A mind-reading creep. "It's much better than we had with the Order. I would think you'd appreciate that."

"Everyone says you and Hux and the rest all eat off gold plates."

Ren choked for a moment on his food and swallowed. "No," he said, and stood to open and pour the blossom wine. He took a long drink, and again he made a pleased face.

Rey asked Finn, "What did you eat?"

"Nutrient paste. It wasn't good."

Ren recited, "'Full of vitamins, perfect calorie balance, with extra ingredients.' We all ate it."

"Extra ingredients?" Finn wondered if she was asking inside her head as well.

"There were different blends," Finn said.

"Mild steroidal enhancers for the fighters," Ren said. "Immuno boosters. Libido suppressants."

Finn set down his food. "What?"

"The nutrient paste was designed to build perfect soldiers." Ren took another bite. "Everything else was extraneous."

Poe looked at Finn and Ren. "Neither of you have eaten any of that stuff in a while, hm? That explains a lot."

"All the sex, you mean," Rey said. "They didn't even know what they were missing." She smiled at Poe. "Fluffkens."

"I suspected what I was missing," said Finn. All the sex? Ren didn't say anything, only ate more. Finn hoped he was stewing over the 'fluffken' comment. "Hungry?"

"Enjoying. When I return to the Order, it's back to the paste."

"You're going back?" asked Rey.

"Of course. Once our mission is complete, naturally."

"You can't." Her tone remained steady, but she fooled no one. "You can defect like Finn did."

"My trial would last less than an hour. Dameron's already considering his own testimony. Then I can look forward to being shot or hanged as an example. Long live the Republic." He took another bite. "When we are finished retrieving General Organa, and I've killed Lord Snoke, I'm going back."

"Not if we imprison you," Poe said. A moment later, he clutched his throat, gagging.

"Stop it," Rey said, and Finn felt the mental blow she sent against Ren. Poe caught his breath, glaring daggers at his enemy.

"You're not going to imprison me."

She said, "Then run away. Space is big. You don't have to go back to the First Order or the Resistance."

"And spend the rest of my days as a fugitive, looking over my shoulder, wondering if the next person I meet is a spy for any of the large number of people who want me dead? No. The First Order won't object if I kill the Supreme Leader. Assassination has always been an acceptable means of advancement." That was true. Finn remembered the early lesson about rising in the ranks: you made your own promotions. "Hux may submit me for a medal."

Rey stood, leaving her plate. "There's a bathtub in there, isn't there?" She nodded at the open door leading to the refresher. "That's what you call them, when you fill a whole cauldron with water just to bathe in?" Finn nodded. "Don't interrupt me for the next hour." She went into the room and locked the door. The sound of running water came through soon after, and a distinctly happy aura filled the room.

"Desert kid," Poe said. He stood and began packing the food into the small cold box in the suite's kitchen.

"Yeah." Finn looked at Ren. "I don't care if you go back. You're crazy for even considering it, but I think you were already crazy a long time ago."

"Opinions vary." Ren examined him. "I had a vision of you once. I didn't know it was you after until we fought. I was fourteen at the time. We were learning how to control our prescience."

"You saw I was going to fight you?"

"I saw you were going to die. There would be a war waged between two armies, one of children raised by the First Order, one of Jedi younglings. I saw you, and I saw thousands of others. All of you died. Bodies piled to the skies."

Definitely crazy. "There's no army of Jedi children."

"I know." If Finn hadn't spent the last several years of his life being terrified of this guy, he'd have sworn he heard a hesitant crack in his voice. "I decided then I was going to step in. I was going to save you all by preventing the war. Ironic, considering I plan to kill you as soon as this mission is done." The door buzzed. "That will be the rest of the wine." He answered the door quickly and took the delivery from the droids, putting on his fake smile which was more frightening that his put-on Dark Lord persona.

"We didn't have any alcohol in the Order, either," Finn said to Poe, tasting a sip from a glass. The flavor was light, a little floral, but nice. "It's good. Try it." Ren was already pouring his third helping and settling on the sofa, his long frame dangling off the end like a puppet.

In the quietest place inside his own head, Finn mused Ren wasn't going to Force choke anyone while he was passed out.

* * *

The third patrol was well out of range when they took the _Falcon_ safely from her refuge in the asteroid field. "We'll get to a safe distance and contact the fleet," Leia told him. "They were instructed to choose one of four sites based on a sweep of each. Even I'm not sure which one they picked."

Chewie pointed out that she didn't used to be this paranoid.

"The Republic is cracking. Without the Senate, the old fears are going to be in charge, and the first power to show leadership will take it all. We're not powerful. We weren't ever at the strength of the Army, and I don't trust the people from the Army who would have survived the attacks. It's them or it's the First Order until we manage to establish a new government, and I pray it's a government I can support. I can only fight on so many fronts. We'll keep working. We'll keep fighting. And we'll stay hidden until we know for sure who we're fighting."

Chewie said she used to practice her speeches better, too.

"Look, it's not...." The ship was rocked with an explosion. Chewbacca fell back. Leia, already in the pilot's seat, hit the engines, uncaring of their direction. "Four? Who the hell sends four patrols?" She punched in any coordinates she could into the nav computer, praying she didn't shoot them into a star. There was another blast, and she heard the deadly pop of sudden decompression in one of the outer bays.

Chewbacca gave her a shove and Leia let him take over the flying. She hit the communication button. "This is General Organa, calling the Resistance. Emergency. Do you read?"

The squeal of the Order's jamming software told her clearly that they weren't. 

Another shot took out the engine entirely. They spun, unable to regain control. Chewie roared at the ship, his own preferred method of dealing with it, but nothing would help now.

They were doomed.

A tractor beam took hold of the ship's hull, stopping their spin with a tooth-grinding thud. "Prepare to be boarded."

"Like hell," she said. Beside her, Chewie had his bowcaster. She had a blaster.

They held each other's eyes for a long moment. She reached out and squeezed his arm. Han was gone. Luke was gone. Ben was as good as gone. There were worse fates than to go out together with the last of her best friends.

Then she smelled it. Leia covered her mouth and nose with her hand, but the nausea already hit her. They were taking no chances. Sleep gas, or poison gas, it didn't matter.

Chewbacca was already coughing and opening a panel Leia had only seen once before. Self-destruct. If the ship blew, it would destroy all the ships around them in its death throes.

He scrambled at the activation switches. The gas was too much for him. Her head swam as she tried to help him. The code. She knew the code. She'd seen. Han showed her. In case.

Leia closed her eyes and couldn't open them again. She heard the boots, and heard a distant voice say, "Tell the Supreme Leader we've captured them."

* * *


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not safe for work. Gentle reminder to note the tags.

Rey filled the tub with as much water as she could drink in a month, finding a temperature that pulled the weariness from her muscles. She poured in a handful of fragrant oil she found at the side. The oil sublimated into pure aroma as it hit the hot liquid, engulfing her with mingled scents she'd only experienced at Market, years ago.

She submerged in the water, covering her face and head, luxuriating as the grit and grime and stink of the last few days dissolved. There was enough room in this bath for all of them.

 _"We wouldn't all fit comfortably. We'd have to take turns."_ Kylo's thoughts came to her slowly, hazily, picturing the four of them undressed and shoved up against the sides of the tub like fish in a can. That led him to think about a fish dish he'd wanted to order. Then he repeated, _"Fish dish"_ to himself over and over.

 _"How much have you had to drink?"_ Her own mind drifted in sympathetic intoxication. He'd showered while she and Finn had gone to talk, but was now considering joining her in the tub just to irritate her probably-boyfriend.

 _"Not nearly enough."_ He swung at a joke at having to deal with her two friends, but she felt most of his ire rolling back into his own mind. She'd encountered this dark pit of loathing inside him many times over the past few days, spitting at him with all his failures and all the actions taken and untaken. In his words and at the surface of his mind, he stood proud of all his foul work. Inside, there was a piece which saw what he'd willingly become, and it screamed. He'd hoped that the wine would silence the self-hatred for a while. Instead, he'd left himself open to all the things he spent his hours trying not to think about, and he shared them all with her.

Rey had nightmares, but she could wake. He was a nightmare.

_"I don't feel sorry for you. I am never going to feel sorry for you."_

_"I never asked."_

Despite the warmth and freshness of the water, Rey felt dirty again. She drained the tub. Two warm robes hung at the side of the tub. She wrapped one around herself and used a towel on her hair. Her steps were unsteady as she moved, a little from the heat of the bath and a lot from the presence in her mind.

She stumbled through the room, noticing one bottle empty and another half-full. She didn't need to taste the drink to feel the deceptively light flavor in her mouth, or the rush inside her veins. The lounging figure on the sofa did so for her. He smirked in her direction, and thought of a half-remembered song he liked which instantly jammed itself into Rey's mind.

"I really hate you," she said to Kylo as she lay down on the bed, head dizzy. Finn already lay there, a sweet if befuddled look on his face. He scooped Rey into his arms as they lay together, heads sharing one of the many pillows.

This was nice. She could fall asleep this way, comforted and warm, if annoyed by the lyrics repeating over and over in her mind. Finn's warmth radiated through her robe. She could feel that he was still angry with her, and puzzled, but the drink had dulled both.

Poe sat in one of the chairs across the room. "I'm never going to get you two out of there. We're going to spend the rest of our lives stuck in this room because you like that mattress."

"We could take the mattress," Kylo said, or thought, and Rey agreed.

He must have said it, because Poe fixed him with a stare. "We can't all fall asleep with him here. I'll take the first watch."

"We could tie him up," Finn suggested, his voice muffled by Rey's hair.

A sharp worry pierced through the pleasant cloud growing in her mind, which turned to interest. One of them pictured his wrists bound over his head, her body pressed against his and controlling every aspect as they rutted on the uncomfortable sofa.

Want filled her. Her own, Finn's, she didn't know. She turned her head, catching his mouth in a soft kiss. He woke from the stupor he'd drifted into and returned the kiss with a friendly smile.

"Not this again," said Poe, but as he stood to leave, Finn popped up his head.

"There's plenty of room."

"It looks too cozy for me." His eyes stayed on Rey. She expected jealousy, but that was mild, inconsequential. He bloomed with worry, naked inside his mind. He wasn't sure what she was becoming, or how much of who she'd been had been consumed by their greatest enemy. He worried the girl Finn had barely known was gone, and that something dangerous had replaced her and would soon destroy Finn as well.

"I could let you into my thoughts," said Rey. "You can see everything. I'm not evil, Poe."

_"Everyone thinks that."_

"Thanks, no. I've had enough mind-reading for the rest of my life. That reminds me, where'd we put that rope?"

Rey felt the belt of her robe untie. For a moment, only a moment, she thought Finn's hands were slithering the knot open, but his hands were on her arms. She could stop this, stop her robe from falling open as the belt slid away and flew over to drop at Poe's feet. She chose to kiss her best friend again instead.

"That's not a bad trick," Poe said, grabbing the soft cloth. "I guess you did learn a few useful things from that arrogant ass."

"The arrogant ass untied it for you," Rey said. "Right now, he's enjoying the idea of someone tying him up."

Poe made a face and dropped the belt. "Never mind."

Kylo said, "Think of this as your one opportunity to resolve your infatuation with my mother. I can struggle if you like."

"That is not.... You." He sputtered. "I don't care what you think you heard inside my head. Normal people don't terrorize other people and steal their thoughts." He had offered several death threats but only now was Rey seeing Poe truly angry. "Why can't you act like a normal person? Why did you have to go all Dark Lord Genocidal Maniac?" He made a painful laugh. "You don't remember, but I met you when you were four. There was a function for some of the old Rebellion types. Even back then you thought you were better than everyone else in the room. You're not. You're nothing. You're still that same little snotty kid who never grew up."

"There were two parties."

"One."

"Two. At the first one, the adults made us all dress up like prim little dolls. You hated every minute. You even convinced some of the other children to go with you to another room to play. I didn't go. I knew most of them, and they didn't like me. The feeling was mutual. I stayed at the stupid party and pretended to be normal while everyone asked my parents why my uncle wasn't there."

Poe didn't say anything.

"The second was right before we moved. My parents wanted me to have one last birthday party at that home, but none of the children I knew would attend. Mother invited her friends and their children instead. You didn't stay long. That sad business with your mother happened shortly after. I'm not surprised you don't remember. But there were two parties."

"Don't tell me you went to the Dark Side because no one came to your birthday party."

"No one came because the other children could tell I wasn't like them. The adults didn't want to know. You saw what I was, and you were right to stay away. Don't you feel clever?"

"Maybe people would like you more if you stopped acting like the backside of a narglatch."

"They weren't going to like me. No one in the Order likes me, either."

"That's true," muttered Finn, face resting against Rey's. She could feel him breathing in the scent of her hair. "Everybody calls you a violent nutjob behind your back."

"I know. They're afraid of me. Fear is respect."

Kylo's dizzying inebriation bubbled in her own bloodstream. The spell Luke had tried to work hadn't drawn away his darkness or wiped away his misdeeds. It had set them out in front of him where he couldn't hide away. The strength of his own personality had pushed the knowledge back as he'd come this far, but the last of his own pretence dissolved with the same bottle he'd hoped would quiet the noise. Nothing stood between him and his past. He couldn't go back to the Order. He couldn't go to the Resistance. As soon as the mission was complete, he'd fire a blaster into his own mouth and end this.

She had to find a way to break this bond before he did.

_"I'll make it fast. You don't need to suffer."_

Finn kissed her again, drawing her away from her mind and from her fears.

_"More Stormtrooper spit. I feel ill."_

She ignored his mental whining. Finn's hand rested on her waist, the only part of her skin he'd let himself touch. The robe was practically useless at this point, only emphasizing her nudity. She moved his hand to warmer skin, and Finn let out a soft sound in his throat. He pulled away from the kiss.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I need to go to the 'fresher right now." He bumped past her getting out of the bed. Rey wrapped the robe back around herself and watched him shut the door behind himself.

Kylo shouted, "Brush your teeth while you're in there!"

"Poor little fluffken," Poe said. Something had passed out of him, anger or sorrow. He sat down on the bed away from Rey. He said to Kylo, "You people really did a number on that kid. Libido suppressant in the food? You recruited him as a child."

"We were all recruited as children."

Rey closed her eyes and touched Finn's mind. He was occupied.

"Oh." His thoughts were jumbled, soaked in an unfamiliar marinade as he touched himself. He didn't want a repeat of their first night. He wanted to hold her. Not only her. She'd known, of course. She'd seen the truth before in Poe's mind, and confirmed it in Finn's.

He'd said it wasn't right to listen in to other people's minds just because she could.

"He cares about you, too," she said to Poe. "You have to see that."

"Doesn't matter. You're the one he can't stop thinking about. You're the one he chose the moment he met you. Humans fall in love with one person. That's just how things work."

"I am going to vomit," Kylo announced.

Poe snapped at him, "You don't have to be such a drama queen all the.... Oh. Never mind." Rey's stomach roiled in sympathy. At least he'd made it to the trash bin in time. He washed his face in the sink in the kitchen area and spit out a full glass of water to rinse his teeth. Her own tasted of the sick until he brought her a fresh cup of water.

"No more wine for you."

"Agreed." He lay down beside her, hand resting on her robe. He looked at Poe. "Who told you humans only fall in love with one person?"

"Everyone knows that."

"Ever been to Corellia?"

"No."

"Lots of plural marriages there. About seventy percent, if you believe the unofficial polls." He shut his eyes. He wasn't ill now but he was very tipsy. "Some humans never fall in love. Some fall in love with half a dozen people at a time. Apparently you can't help it. I've heard." She heard his thoughts and felt him drift off. Finn would be back soon, and she'd thought they'd curl up here together. That wouldn't be easy with a would-be Sith Lord passed out in the middle of the bed.

"Help me move him."

Poe stood with the cord to her robe. "Sure. We can push him onto the floor. I'll tie him up. You cut his throat."

"Just shove him to the side." She felt Finn in her mind finishing his private moment.

"That works, too." He helped her roll Kylo to one side of the bed, leaving them an enormous space. Poe worked on tying one wrist to the side of the bed just in case. "I know some people in plurals. It's not stable."

"His parents had a plural marriage for years."

Poe froze. "They did not."

"They did." She didn't share the identity of the third. She was still processing that information to herself. Love destroyed as effectively as fury, and burned more on the way down. "You're thinking that's why he's so twisted."

"Top thing I don't care about right now: this pile of dung. Rey, Finn's...."

"Finn's what?" asked Finn. He saw Kylo in the bed. "Seriously? I was gone five minutes."

"Finn's going to be back any time," Poe said smoothly. "Feel better?"

"Much. Sorry about that."

"Your idea?" she asked Poe.

"It works for me. Now I'd say I'm leaving you two alone, but you have a guest."

"Stay," she said, and she pushed him with her mind. He wanted to stay with them. She coaxed him.

Kylo's body was asleep, but his mind rested inside hers. _"Everything is easier this way."_

_"Yes."_

"Stay here," said Finn, and he squeezed Poe's hand.

Later, she would remember the rest of the evening as a heady jumble of images and feelings.

Finn's kisses were gentle, no longer hurried along by his hormones. He took his time holding her, getting nervous as she peeled off his clothes. Her own need had grown. She traced each muscle on his arms, sharply defined by years of hard training. She met Poe's eyes over his shoulder, and watched Finn shiver as soft kisses rained down his back.

Kissing was the best, was her favorite. She felt him at the edge of her mind, not able to engage her here yet, but willing to learn. Everything was learning with him, was newness, was sweet.

She held his thighs with her hands, steadying him. With care, she rose up, and settled slowly onto him as he moaned into her mouth. Poe's arms wrapped around him from behind, holding him safe as Rey rose and fell in front of him, careful not to injure or bruise.

"Did you get this far?" She let out a soft laugh, enjoying the stretch of him inside her, feeling the good burn of her own legs setting an eager pace.

"Not quite," Poe said, kissing his neck. "Hadn't worked up to it." His own body moved back and forth, rubbing against Finn's back.

_"Don't you three make a nice sight?"_

_"Go back to sleep."_

_"You like how thick he feels inside you. You like how strong his hands are on your waist. That awed look on his stupid face."_

Rey breathed out. "Wait. Wait one moment." She pulled away from Finn, brushing his face with her hand. Then she punched Kylo, feeling the blow in her own jaw.

"Ow."

She kissed Finn again, who said, "I don't want to know."

"I kind of want to know," Poe said.

Rey slid up and took Finn's prick into her hand, guiding him back into her, impaling herself with slow care. Finn scrabbled inexpertly inside his mind, overcome with the return of sensation. This was what Rey knew, what she liked, this mingling of two bodies for comfort between storms. She was safe in his arms as she moved with him, rising and falling in a steady rhythm, and kept him safe in return as Poe rutted against him slowly. Perfect.

_"Dull."_

_"No."_

She pushed him more eagerly, fierce in her need for more skin, more contact. She dropped into Finn's mind like an acrobat dropping to the ground, and she felt Finn's sudden recoil.

 _"Feel me,"_ she thought at Finn. _"Feel what I'm feeling."_

 _"It doesn't work that way."_ The thought was Kylo's.

She kissed Finn desperately. She could feel him getting close again, and they would have to explore the advantages in how often he was ready to go. Next time. There would be a next time. She'd teach him to join his mind with hers, to share the fire of every nerve in her body. She felt his nerves now, felt a nearby mind bursting with pleasure as Poe went hot and sticky against Finn's back with a moan.

"It's okay," she said. "I want you to come." With the last word, she felt him shiver into her, felt the echo of his climax inside her. She reached between them, stroking herself to join him, close behind and aching to finish.

She felt another hand, warm and steady and not attached to her, slip under the blanket to engage in a light stroke on himself, enough to push back through her and send her tumbling over the edge.

_"You're welcome."_

_"I hate you."_ She kissed Finn again, and for once, she was glad he couldn't read her mind.

* * *

Leia woke with cold water on her face. One of Snoke's lackeys stood in front of her. She didn't know him and couldn't feel his mind, therefore she didn't care.

"Wake up," he snarled.

Her wrists were bound together, and her body ached as though she'd slept in the same position for too long. No injection sites for any drugs. No immediate injuries she could identify other than a painful head. Someone had punched or kicked her while she'd been out. Nothing unusual there.

"I'm awake." She sat up gingerly, stretching her shoulders. They would expect her to worry about her friend, about herself. They'd expect her to make haughty demands.

She stayed quiet.

"You have been lawfully detained by the First Order on charges of treason."

"Lawful? The First Order are a pathetic group of renegades who can't accept that the Empire is finished. You don't have any say over the law."

"In the absence of the Senate, Supreme Leader Snoke has declared himself the rightful ruler of our galaxy."

Leia couldn't help it. She laughed. "I see. Then you should know that I hereby declare myself Queen of the Sparklemint Sticks."

The underling punched her. The blow landed just below her teeth, rattling her jaw. Amateur.

"You have been tried in your absence. When we arrive, the Supreme Leader will personally see to your execution. In the meantime, you will tell us everything you know about the Resistance."

"Really, I'm not going to."

"Then we'll take the information out of your friend's furry hide."

_"Chewbacca escaped an hour ago."_

Leia tilted her head. She looked at her would-be torturer, but there was no way he'd sound exactly like her twin brother.

"He won't tell you anything, either." She leaned forward. "Let's cut through the googosh spit. I'm not telling you anything. You can try whatever you like to get information from me. Be as creative as you'd like. Back in the day, I was tortured multiple times by Darth Vader himself, and I'm a lot meaner now. So pull out your hot irons and get your kicks, or admit you're just the warm up act and send in the real interrogator. You need a mind reader to get through to me, and you've only got one on your staff who can overcome my mental shields. I know that. You know that. Send him in."

She pushed back her legs to curl up on the hard table they'd given her as a bunk. "I'll be here waiting."

She expected the kick, which was why she'd positioned herself carefully. The First Order was a fearsome military power, but their work staff were idiots.

"You can tell your secrets to the pain droids."

"I wouldn't bet on it." She watched him walk out. "Are you still here?"

_"Yes. I'm always here."_

"I can't see you."

_"You can learn to see again."_

If she lived that long. "I'm very angry with you," she said quietly, touching her own emotions like pressing a finger into an open wound. "I know why you sent me away. You shouldn't have. We were always strongest together."

_"You're going to have to be strong on your own again."_

As if she ever had any other option. Leia was so very tired. "Can you get me out of here?"

_"I can't interfere. There are rules."_

She huffed a laugh. The kick had been harder than she'd anticipated, or maybe she was just getting old. "Whose rules? Don't tell me you haven't already figured out a way around them." She let herself consider her options. "You said Chewie got away."

 _"He went for help,"_ said a second voice in her mind. _"He can't take on the First Order by himself, even for you, sweetheart."_

A shift moved the grief which had numbed her limbs and darkened her heart these last several weeks. She couldn't see Han, but she could sense his love for her. "If they're going to kill me, you should tell him to stay gone. I'm glad he escaped."

Inside herself, in a quiet place even ghosts wouldn't reach, Leia thought she wouldn't mind dying, not now, knowing her two closest friends were waiting for her, ready to take her by the hand and walk away.

* * *

In the wee hours of the morning, Kylo untied the knot, stretching his shoulder until the life came back into it. He was a little surprised they hadn't kicked him to the floor, but this bed could sleep an army. The three of them piled over on the other side, tangled like cats and exhausted from their second try.

He felt ill again. He climbed out of bed to clean his face and to breathe. Rey lived inside his head, even now in her tired dreams cascading through images of death and love and fear: he felt choking smoke in his mouth and throat, and the blade she searched for was masked by steam. He felt all of her, including the shadows of her affections. What she wanted to believe was a sweet new romance with one. What she hoped was a solid new friendship and understanding with the other. He knew her wishes, and the lean of her heart.

He glanced at the sofa, then crawled back into the bed, dropping his own clothes to the floor. The other two would complain at finding him naked in the morning, which made it all the more fun. There was more than one way to torture someone, truce or not truce.

Rey stirred in the low light of the room, one arm draped over the man she wanted to love. He felt her wake up and watch him.

_"You're awake."_

_"Go back to sleep. We have to get up in three hours and retrieve the ship."_ Then it was back into space, back to their goal, and he would leave as soon as they'd concluded their business. She knew as well as he did.

_"Stay."_

_"No."_

_"Stay now. Come hold me."_

He ought to get out of the bed and go pass out on the couch. Rey's heart was set on the man sleeping beside her, and her body was drenched in the scent of his skin. Her mind reached for Kylo, though, and after all, it was their wedding night.

He slid over to join her, wrapping his arms around her from the other side of where Finn and Poe slept. He kissed her hair. Without speaking, barely thinking, they moved against each other until he slipped himself inside her with a growl only for her ears. Tight and hot and wet and soft, and she didn't make a sound as her fingers joined his, pressing against where their bodies met, where every shared spark passed between them.

_"Tell me a story about the Jedi."_

_"Once there was a boy, born gifted in the Force, the son of a slave."_ He told her the stories he knew, and the ones he guessed at, as they touched and moved. He told her about the lost boy, and he told her of the boy's children, and the driving line of love and loss that had distorted the galaxy by the sheer weight of emotion. He told her everything in a mind's blink. _"The old Jedi were right about one thing. Love ruins all it touches. You're better off without."_

Kylo left her fingers to their well-practiced dance. He clutched her against himself with one hand and reached the other behind her. He'd felt her curiosity as the two men sleeping next to her had coupled in the night. He pressed the tip of his own finger inside her now. She startled as he pushed into her body in both places, matching his own pace. 

_"Is this what you want?"_

_"No."_

_"This is what you want."_

_"Yes."_

She yearned to be trapped this way, staked between her Stormtrooper in her arms and Kylo worming his way into her from behind. Her desire surged through him. She arched and squirmed, pulling away then pushing back to drive him in deeper. Rey shivered as she fell over her peak, silently twitching as her mind broke apart. He fed her his own hot pleasure, shuddering into her and biting down on his own lips to keep quiet.

If he lived to be a thousand years old, he'd remember this, remember the thump of her heart under his hand on her small breast, and the freshly-washed smell of her hair, and the sorrow of her soul teetering midway between Light and Dark while he thrust into her willing body again and again.

* * *

Finn's very first hangover was all he'd been led to believe.

"There's a medikit," Poe said, handing him some water and a few white pills. "Drink all the water."

"Why are you fine?"

"I didn't have much and I drank a lot of water already. You're dehydrated. Have some food and a shower, and we'll go."

Finn lay back. Poe yanked the covers off. "Hey!" There were two groans beside him. Rey's hair was tangled, and she looked as bleary as he felt, though she hadn't so much as sipped the wine last night. On her other side, Finn could see enough skin to know who else was unhappy this morning. He turned away, really not wanting to spend his morning greeted with the sight of his evil ex-boss stark naked and whining about a self-inflicted headache.

"Shower. Right."

The 'fresher didn't feature a sonic shower like he was used to, but spigots with real water pouring over his aching head. Ten minutes later, Finn felt much better. He managed to eat a little leftover food from last night. The others were already dressed, Rey and Poe in their old clothes, Ren in his borrowed ones. Outside their window, the city lights blinked out one by one as daybreak approached. Later, he realized he'd seen the extra shuttles zooming in the sky and never parsed that this was unusual.

As they poured out of their room, groggy in the early morning bustle, Finn spotted the guards already coming down the hallway. "Time to go," he said, shoving Poe quickly ahead of him the other way.

"They might not be for us."

"They are," said Rey, turning her face away and hurrying.

"Stop right there!" came the shout.

Ren said, "There are only four of them. I can dispatch them easily."

"Move," said Rey, shoving him towards the lift.

Poe said, "Stairs." He shouldered the stairway door open, climbing them two at a time as the others followed. "There's a shuttle pad two floors up from here."

Behind them were the sounds of pursuit. Finn's headache hadn't stopped, but he ran as fast as he could. As soon as they exited the stairwell, Ren lit his lightsaber and slashed the door into an unpassable mess. Rey did the same with the lift door.

"I might have been wrong about the shuttle pad," said Poe, but he led them through the corridor anyway, following the signs.

The patrons of this hotel could easily catch a jump shuttle and hop over to the next spire for a meal or a business meeting, saving them the hassle of taking the lifts down fifty or one hundred storeys to the ground and rubbing elbows or other appendages with the less elite. Much of the city's business seemed to be conducted high up in the air, and Finn pictured many-legged businesscreatures who spent entire lives never traveling below the twentieth floor.

There was a shuttle pad on this floor.

Three guards waited there.

These weren't Stormtroopers, not faceless soldiers recruited far too young to know what they'd been kidnapped to do. These had the look of city guards who had been given names and descriptions. The four of them hovered around the corner. Ren had his lightsaber unlit but ready, though clearly he and Rey were having a mental conversation. Her own weapon was still at her side.

"Fine," he said, clipping his. He stepped out.

"What's going on?" Poe whispered.

"If they're working for the First Order, they are looking for the three of us," she said quietly. "They won't know who Kylo is."

Ren wore his super creepy 'normal' smile and used his even creepier perky voice. "Do you guys know when the next shuttle to Spire Nineteen is? I've got a breakfast meeting with Lazlo and he hates when I'm late." The guards focused their attention on him.

Rey said, "Come on." Together, the three of them crept toward the jump shuttle on the pad, just out of sight of the guards. There was a shuttle waiting, already warming up for the first hop.

The guard said, "We need to see your identification."

"Sorry, must have left it back in my room. The wife's back there. I'll have her fetch it."

"Halt!" said another guard, spotting the three fugitives. Poe slammed on the Open Bay toggle. Winds whipped at them, whirling up like a vortex in the early morning thermals.

Ren punched the closest guard, but one of his friends began to fire. The third chased them.

Rey lit her own lightsaber, blocking the blasts. "Get on the shuttle!"

Finn wasn't about to get separated from her again. A second later, he had no choice. The third guard barreled into him, tackling him to the floor. "You are under arrest!"

He couldn't see what was going on around him, too busy with the heavy man struggling with him. Finn got in a good elbow, and he heard the alarm sounding.

"Next time, just let me kill them," he heard Ren snarl, and then Finn and the guard rolled off the edge of the shuttle pad into thin air. They fell into nothingness.

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

Rey's heart dropped as Finn fell off the edge of the shuttle pad while struggling with a guard. The other two guards lay unconscious, and that didn't matter because Finn was falling.

She threw herself to the ledge, catching sight of him. Instantly, she reached out with the Force, trying to grab hold of him the way she'd first taken hold of her lightsaber. Energy flowed through her, but it was scattered, terrified. She felt the tendrils of her power wrap around him, slipping past without capturing.

She couldn't catch him.

 _"Use your fear! Your power will come to you!"_ Kylo shouted in her brain.

She felt his annoyance, and in a moment, she sensed intense energy crackling, but not through her. Kylo held out his hand and gestured up. As she watched, Finn's descent slowed and stopped. The guard's did not. Even at the great distance, she thought she could hear the smack as he hit the ground far below them.

Finn floated up and was dropped ungraciously to the shuttle pad, where he gasped and trembled. Rey ran to his side, touching his arms, reassuring herself he wasn't dead.

He gulped a breath. "You caught me."

"I didn't," she said, staring at Kylo. Poe wore a face she couldn't read at all. He helped Finn to his feet.

"Why?" Finn's voice had steadied, but filled with confusion.

"I am sure most people say 'thank you,'" said Kylo. "Even you were taught that in the crèche."

"Thank you for saving my life," Finn said. "Why?"

"You are useful. Get on the shuttle."

She felt Kylo's self-satisfied smirk as he turned away from them. She also heard the thought both Finn and Poe had at the same moment: if Kylo had fallen, both would have let him hit the ground. Rey couldn't have caught him if she'd tried. She had nearly let Finn die because she couldn't control her powers.

_"I should have punched you and made you furious."_

_"Why do you have to be so awful all the time?"_ Yet he'd saved Finn, and she saw the underlying reason, no matter how well-hidden Kylo believed his motives were.

The sounds of pursuit shook her from her reverie. The other guards would be close on their heels. She boarded the jump shuttle behind the others, closing the door. Already, Poe and Kylo were sniping at each other at the controls. There was no pilot, and both intended to fly.

"It's automatic," Finn said, sliding between them and slamming the 'Go' button. The jump shuttle lifted off smoothly, heading for its programmed destination. Behind them, more guards emerged onto the shuttle pad to find their concussed colleagues.

Poe said, "How did they figure out where we were staying?"

_"Does anyone else with the First Order know Naberrie is a family name?"_

Kylo ignored her, which meant 'yes.'

* * *

Despite Finn's fears, there were no guards waiting for them at their ship. "We'll just take a different one," Rey had said, and he was still too light-headed from his near-death to point out she was casually suggesting stealing. Again.

Poe disappeared with their remaining credits and met them at the spaceport with a loaded hovercart full of rations and extra fuel cells. "We don't know how long this will take," he said, loading them into the tiny cargo hold of the little blue ship. "How does she look?"

Rey said, "She's in better condition than the one I came here in." She went inside and began checking all the systems one more time to be sure. Finn followed her on board. Ren went straight to the communications panel and popped the cover.

"What are you doing?"

"We'll want to listen in on First Order transmissions. We need those frequencies." Finn watched him reset the electronics under the panel.

"Don't forget the subfrequency. Ships don't use that one, but they always sent us our orders that way."

Ren's hand hesitated over the board. "I know about the subfrequency. I'm not sure where to locate it."

"You wouldn't." Finn grabbed the board from him and fixed in on the same subfrequency he'd heard inside his helmet for most of his life. "There. You find us fleet movements, I'll find us where the ground troops are going."

Poe stood behind the pilot's chair, watching them. "Will your codes still work?"

"FN-2187's won't. Mine will."

"I don't use that name any more."

Ren shrugged. "There." He plugged in the panel and dialed in the main First Order channel, typing in a long code string which Finn tried to memorize for later. Voices floated through the cockpit, and Finn was back in the First Order for a haunting moment, waiting to be told his next action. Boring communications droned over the speaker, relaying coded positions and supplies.

Poe slid into the pilot's seat. "Strap in." He eased the ship out of the dock. They weren't shot at or followed. Finn let out his breath and sat in the co-pilot's chair for their ascent. Ren went aft to find a seat.

"We'll need a route," said Poe, switching the radio over to a different channel. "Send out a message to frequency two nine gamma four."

Finn opened the frequency. "What should I say?"

"Echo echo. Fly away home."

Finn repeated the message over the channel. Poe had tried several different channels and code phrases on their way here. They'd never heard a reply. He didn't expect one now.

"We will be able to find them. Right?"

"We will. They may be using the short range transmitters to keep from being overheard. We'd have to be closer. We'll travel the hyperlane. Why don't you do the flight plan? It'll give you some practice."

"I'm never going to learn to do this as well as you do."

"No. But you can learn to do it as well as you can. Try."

Finn remembered his last lesson on the nav computer, and ordered up a short route. He plugged in the numbers. "Okay."

"Good job."

After they entered hyperspace, Rey joined them in the cockpit, Ren close behind her. "Where are we going?"

"We're still trying to reach the Resistance fleet. We can figure out our next move then."

Ren pushed past him and dialed in the First Order channels again. "As much as I'd like to discover exactly where your latest secret base is, we've got other priorities."

Moments later, a droning voice said, _"Dragon bird on route to Outland Base."_

"I know that one," said Finn. "Isn't Outland Base on Khar Delba?"

"Khar Shian." At their blank looks, he said, "The moon. We retreated the remainder of our forces from Starkiller Base. They're taking her there."

"What?"

"'Dragon bird' is one of the First Order's codes for General Organa."

"I like it," Poe said.

"You would. They're taking her to Lord Snoke. Can we intercept?"

"Sure." Poe spun in his chair. "We can reach the star destroyer before they hit your secret base, and engage them in our rusty shuttle with no weapons. Are you this stupid all the time? Because I just had a big boost in confidence about how the Resistance is going to fare if you're the best they've got."

"You think you'll do better against the secret base with the combined forces of all the First Order's star destroyers? Be my guest but I'd like to disembark first."

"We can't fight them," said Rey, and she looked at Finn. "You got into Starkiller Base through a back door when you came looking for me."

"We had the best pilot in the galaxy fly us in. He's dead now."

Ren didn't rise to the bait. "A full assault wouldn't work, not even if we had your fleet. There is no back entrance. There's only the front door."

Poe shook his head. "Then we've got nothing. I can chart us a path to get to the Khar Delba system in a day, especially if we rig in those extra fuel cells."

"We can push the engines faster with the Force," Ren said, looking at Rey with a smile Finn didn't like.

She said, "The ship won't get us home if we do. I can line in the fuel cells."

Poe said, "I said, we can get there. But unless you have a plan to sneak us inside to grab the General, it doesn't do us any good. We'll arrive in time to be captured ourselves. Was that your idea all along? You couldn't catch Finn or defeat Rey but here they are, walking right into the base with you. You'll betray her to Snoke and turn him over for execution. Don't give me some story about wanting to rescue your mother. These two watched you kill your own father. You've been using us all along."

Anger and fear lit his words. Ren's fingers had been inching closer to his lightsaber for a while. They'd start fighting any second, and there went the truce.

Finn said, "You're a genius. That's it."

Ren's hand dropped from his weapon. "That would work. That would work perfectly."

"What would?" Poe was still spoiling for a fight.

Rey stared at Ren a moment. "You're right. Poe, you're brilliant." She kissed his cheek.

"What just happened?"

Finn said, "We're going to walk through the front door as the prisoners of the Dork Lord here."

"No, we're not."

"It will work," said Ren. "I never planned to defect. There's been a hunt for Finn since he left." He hesitated only for a second on Finn's name. "He's not the only Stormtrooper who has started to complain. They want to make an example of him in front of any other Stormtroopers who might think about leaving. A messy example."

Finn flinched. He'd witnessed that kind of execution before.

"Snoke ordered you to kill me," Rey said. "And you gave the order to have Poe executed."

"True. But I told Lord Snoke several times you were more valuable as an asset to us. He's expecting me to defy his order and bring you in as a prisoner. Dameron's more difficult to explain. You'll have to hide. I can order the ship not to be searched."

"I can hide. Will they believe you?"

Finn nodded. "Him? Yeah. He's Snoke's pet Jedi, and he'll be coming home with prisoners. They may throw him a party."

"And we're sure this wasn't his plan all along?" He looked at Rey. "You're reading his mind."

"This wasn't his plan. This is our plan. And it's all we have. Can we find out how much of a lead they've got?"

"We're in luck," Poe said, pulling up his charts. "If I'm calculating that transmission correctly, they're almost as far out as we are. The _Falcon_ must have given them a real run."

"Fastest ship in the galaxy," Ren said quietly.

* * *

"Why does he want me dead?"

Rey waited until they were alone, which was difficult on this small spacecraft. She mentally nudged Finn into asking for more flying lessons, which Poe was only too glad to give. Every time she pushed someone, the task was easier. She'd strained her mind trying to influence that first Stormtrooper. Now the power came easily, and the control. Kylo's pride at her latest trick sparkled inside her head. She ignored him, focusing on her question, forcing herself to speak aloud.

"If Snoke wants to drain Jedi of their powers, it makes no sense for him to want you to kill me. It made no sense for him to order the deaths of all those other Jedi at our school. What's missing?"

"I've wondered that." He offered her his thoughts but Rey pulled back. "He's been draining my fellow apprentices one by one, but he wanted my mother killed before we lost my uncle and he changed the order to capture her. He could have had them both."

"He could have killed you whenever he wanted." Kylo had been Snoke's willing lapdog for years.

"I prefer to consider myself his ally and protégé."

"I'm sure that's what he wanted you to consider yourself." Her stomach rumbled, or maybe his did. "Where did we put those supplies?"

"Here." The hard rations were stored away, but they'd kept the leftovers from the previous night close at hand. His delight tickled her brain as he poked through the containers. Before yesterday, he hadn't touched this kind of food since he was thirteen years old. She'd never had the chance at all, because of what he'd done at fifteen. He hated himself for his past even as he refused to apologize.

"Apologies are pointless," he told her. "They change nothing."

"They make the people you've hurt feel better."

"I don't care how other people feel."

_"You saved Finn because of how I feel."_

_"You aren't other people."_

He found the container he wanted. Rey had seen fruit before, but not often. The luscious colors of the berries promised tart and sweet. He flicked two into his palm, and brought his hand to her face. She pulled back, annoyed again, but he pressed one berry to her lips. She glared at him, allowing her lips to part. She let herself taste the firm skin on her tongue before biting into the yielding flesh. Juicy pulp filled her mouth. He popped the second berry into his own mouth, smiling at her.

_"Good?"_

_"Close your mouth while you chew."_

She grabbed a handful of berries and ate them one by one. When she was down to her last, Kylo took her hand, bringing it up to his mouth to steal her treat and press his lips against her palm.

From right behind her, Poe said, "If I have to spend this trip watching you two flirt, I'm abandoning the mission and airlocking you both." He pushed past. "What's left for lunch?"

"That wasn't flirting," said Rey. Finn stood in the entryway. "There's plenty."

"We've shaved off another couple of hours." He grabbed one of the food containers. "What's this one?"

"Gorak-style Roba over ginger noodles," Kylo told him. The words were meaningless to Rey and she saw the same confusion on Finn's face. "Try it."

Rey opened more containers, sorting out the cold meats and grains and sweets. "I need more fighting practice. If we have to battle our way out, I want to be ready."

"You'll be a prisoner," said Finn. "They won't let you have a weapon."

Kylo said, "I'll hold onto it for you." Rey was used to feeling the tendrils of his lust. This was the first time she'd felt it directed against an inanimate object. She moved the edge of her cloak over the grip.

"We'll think of something."

* * *

The hyperdrive coughed them out in the middle of an asteroid field at the end of their third jump. The pathetic shields on this ship held off the smaller rocks that buffeted them as Dameron swore, sliding back into the pilot's seat to navigate them safely through.

Finn said, "I thought the nav computer took care of that kind of thing?"

"It does," said Rey, clutching the back of a chair to hold herself upright. "It should."

"Yeah, well, not when you're trying to hit the gravity wells near stars to get an extra boost of speed." Dameron frowned as he turned the ship.

Three large asteroids loomed menacingly before them. Irritated, Kylo reached out with his powers and swept them aside to crash into their fellows. "Would it be easier if I swept the way for you?"

To his private enjoyment, for once Dameron looked impressed. "Can you do that?"

He could, or he could use this as another teaching opportunity. He took Rey's arm, startling her. "You need the practice. Move those aside."

"I can't. They're huge." Under her protest was the fearful memory of letting Finn slip away, and before, when she'd dropped her hold on Kylo. She blamed herself in part for Luke's death, and she worried she would fail again and kill someone else she cared about as she'd nearly killed Finn.

A kinder, more patient teacher would guide her through her fears to work past them, but the kind, patient teacher was dead. "You didn't get the 'luminous beings' speech? He usually did that one early on. When in doubt, quote Master Yoda."

Rey's mind flickered in unexpected amusement. "He did, actually. I didn't know it was part of the usual lesson plan."

"Asteroids," said Dameron in a loud voice.

Kylo closed his eyes, stretching out their hands together. "This is simple. The Force is here, stretching between the stars, between the asteroids, between us. Use it. Feel your connection with the stone and the ore. Brush them away from our path."

Rey's powers merged with his, golden-hued in his mind. She pushed out in a radiant glow only he could see, thrusting the asteroids ahead of them aside like the bow of a sailboat cutting through water. Gaps opened and Dameron steered their ship between planetoid-sized chunks of iron and silicon. Kylo felt Rey grasp an asteroid the size of a small moon and cast it away like a child's ball. "Good."

She opened her eyes. "I did that?"

"That was amazing," said Finn, once again impressed by her power.

Dameron piloted the ship away from the deadly field, plugging in the next jump coordinates. They zoomed back into hyperspace. "Thanks," he said, to Rey. To Kylo, he added, "Neat trick. You should teach it to Finn."

"You're joking."

Rey said, "Luke said he's Force-sensitive."

Disbelieving, Kylo closed his eyes and reached out. A small, bright glow pulsed from Finn, not much, not something he'd have seen unless he went looking, but there. "You're fortunate. Had you been more gifted, you would have been identified when you were a child and joined the ranks of the Knights. Lord Snoke would have eaten you for breakfast."

Finn made a face. "I'd be another Darth Windbag, too? No thanks."

"Seriously," said Dameron. "If you're training people, train him, too."

"I already have one apprentice. I have no need of another." There were only ever two, that much he remembered from the other stories.

"I'm not your apprentice," said Rey, offended.

"That is precisely and entirely what you are to me."

She made a face, and for once, he couldn't easily pick out what she was thinking. He didn't miss Dameron and Finn's exchanged glance, nor Dameron's quiet, "Like I said. Things get complicated."

"He's right," Rey said after a moment. "You should train Finn. I'm still learning and can't teach him. It's too bad there isn't somewhere he could go to learn more about how to use his powers. Like a school?"

He ignored the jab, and the layered angers under her words, both old and fresh. "He doesn't have any powers. He has a vague potential. I doubt he could even make the blue sphere."

"The what?"

Kylo sighed. "Image projection is one of the earliest Jedi lessons, after not getting hit by projectiles. You create an image of a blue sphere in front of you. I managed to perform it when I was a toddler. Like this." He brought up the picture in his mind, and he projected it easily in front of himself. "Rey?"

"How are you doing that?"

"Luke didn't show you?"

"I was learning fighting skills. I thought you were going to kill me."

He shrugged. "Try it now."

Her hands moved in front of her as she began plaiting her powers together to weave the image. To his surprise, Finn tried the same. Rey's sphere bloomed in front of her, an icy blue. The air in front of Finn remained empty.

"Keep trying," Kylo said. "Picture it in your mind, the most perfect blue you can imagine. Push the power from your core." He watched as Finn's hands formed a faint sphere, almost too pale to see, but definitely real.

Rey collapsed her sphere. "If you were less of a kriffhead, you'd be a decent teacher."

Dameron said, "If he was less of a kriffhead, we wouldn't be in half the mess we are. Our little trip through the asteroid belt cost us some time. I've had to reroute again." Kylo pushed past him to check the calculations on the jump. He wanted to point to a mistake, find some means of speeding up their transit by a better path, but Dameron wasn't a fool and he knew how to navigate.

"You said you could Jedi the engines," said Finn. "You might want to try."

"Not now," Rey said at exactly the same moment Kylo said, "Of course."

* * *

"They've been in there a long time." Finn looked worried.

Poe wasn't sure what to say. Rey had shut herself in a small cabin with Ren, and that worried him plenty too, even though their ship gained speed with the energy they'd found. He had a very strong idea how they'd managed the trick. A few days ago he'd have been furious with her, not just for sleeping with the Devil and endangering them all by letting him inside her head on purpose, but for how much he was sure it'd hurt his new friend.

He still wasn't sure Rey hadn't made a fatal mistake, and he still wasn't sure Finn wouldn't wind up hurt badly for her error. He no longer had the luxury to be angry. They were running short on time. They would deliver Ren to precisely where he wanted to be, and he would abandon them the moment he had what he wanted. Poe knew it in his bones.

"Ignore them. You and I need to be on the same page with the plan. You go into the prisoner block, you find the General, and I'll bring the ship. We get out. Nothing else."

"What if Rey and I get separated?"

"I've got trackers for you both." He bit his lip. "Finn, you know there's a chance she won't want to come back with us."

"You think she's going to decide to stay with him."

"She's changed. He's wrapped up tight inside her head. Do you know how this Jedi stuff works or how to fix it? I don't. We get in, we get the General, we go. If Rey wants to come back with us, great. If she chooses to stay, you can't stay with her. The First Order will kill you. I need you to tell me you understand that."

"She's not going to stay with him. I know what you think. I was awake last night, and I know what they're doing now. I'm not stupid, even though all three of you think I'm an idiot."

He didn't argue because he'd come to that conclusion and didn't like saying so. "You know he's technically a prince."

"You know he's entirely a," Finn ended with a word Poe had never heard before in any language he spoke, but the meaning was clear. Finn wore the nervous smile of someone who didn't swear often and believed he would get in trouble for doing so.

"Why aren't you upset? You're sitting here calm as a rock while your girlfriend is in there with Kylo Ren making the bantha with two backs."

Finn rested in his seat, and a change came over his face. Poe had settled into one impression of his new friend, that of an eager kid, more than a little naive, happy to help and ready to believe whatever slop he was fed. Finn's friendly, open face failed at any attempt at guile. Rey may not have seen through his "hero of the Resistance" story, but she was a young kid, too, and she'd been the only one. Now Finn's expression shifted, and for the first time, Poe saw him as mature, even calculating.

"I'm seething. And she's never, ever going to find out for three good reasons. The big one is, she doesn't want to be with Mister Anger Management Issues. She hates that guy, but her brain is all messed up with the Force right now. When Rey gets free of him, she's going to feel awful about what's been going on. I'm not going to make things harder for her." He held up one finger, and joined it with another.

"Second, she's not first prize in a ball toss game. The moment I start treating her like a possession, she's going to kick my butt and never speak to me again." He held up a third finger. "Third, he's expecting me to act like a jealous idiot. He wants to watch me squirm. I'm not giving him the satisfaction." Finn smiled tightly.

Poe looked at him, impressed. "You're a little evil sometimes."

"Stormtrooper."

"Worst Stormtrooper ever."

"You like me, though." And that was true. He let Finn take his hand. "In fact, you like me a whole lot. Maybe even more than that."

This again. He pulled his hand back. "I'm not saying I do and I'm not saying I don't. I'm saying, we're in the middle of a war and I might have to order you into a battle you don't come out of. Can we please just stick to 'like'?" Especially while Finn was spending this much time planning how best to keep Rey happy. Emotions never did well when multiple people got involved, no matter what two certain sex-obsessed Jedi might claim.

The door to the cabin opened. Rey, looking exactly like someone who'd just thrown her clothes back on, padded out on bare feet. "What's our ETA?"

Her voice wasn't right. Poe checked the navigation system, although he already knew the answer. "Six hours."

"And what is the expected arrival of the ship with the General?"

"Four hours." They'd stretched the terrible little ship to its limits, and yes, whatever those two were doing had pushed it even faster. They still wouldn't arrive on time.

"We're feeding the Force energy into the engines. We can get us there faster but we won't have any strength left when we get to Outland Base. We need more power."

"You rigged in all the fuel cells."

"We don't need more fuel cells. We need your help," Rey said to Finn. She turned to Poe. "We need both of you."

'We.' Poe's stomach sank. "Can I register a bad feeling right now? Having one."

Finn said, "Whatever you need."

"Count me out," said Poe. "He got into my head once. I still have nightmares. He's not getting in again, and until I know you're just you, I'm not letting you in, either. He's turning you into something."

"Yes," said Rey. "And we'll worry about that after our mission is completed. Finn, are you in?"

"Okay."

Poe took his arm. "Are you sure about this? Some Jedi orgy using you as a battery sounds like a very bad idea." Something in the back of his own mind liked the thought, though, didn't it? Trapped between bodies, moving over hot skin, frictioning energy like a sparkler. Part of his mind thought it sounded very good indeed. A smaller part pointed out this didn't sound like his own thought at all, that it sounded like a thought implanted by someone else.

The last sane piece of Poe Dameron stood up. "Stop this now." He knew she'd block the punch easily, but something passed out of her eyes as she did.

"What's going on?" That sounded a lot more like the Rey he'd met that first day: hard, suspicious, and wondering what she'd gotten herself into.

"Your brain twin is trying to Jedi-whammy us into sex. Something about powering the engines faster?"

"Oh." Rey closed her eyes, then pinched the skin right under her own arm and squeezed viciously. She made a pained face, and the fingers left a nasty, purple mark. She opened her eyes. "It is a good way to push the engines," she said in half-apology. "But if we push too much, we'll destroy this ship, too."

"You screwed the other ship to death."

"Yes."

"We could push these engines a little more," said Finn hopefully.

Poe said, "This is not part of your flight training."

"It could be."

Poe threw up his hands. He was alone inside his own head right now. He was almost positive of that. There was no accounting for how persuasive Finn's hopeful face was. "Fine. But we are tying Darth Loser up again and putting a gag on him this time. And we are not talking about this later. Ever."

Whatever Rey heard in her head in response, she was wise enough not to share.

* * *

The pain droids had been and gone. Leia lay limp and trembling on the hard table. She was getting too old for this. She hadn't told them anything. Surely they'd known going in that she wouldn't. This was theatre for someone's benefit.

She felt the ship touch down.

She heard the door open. A presence thick with darkness moved into the cell with her. The mind wasn't human, was all obtuse angles and malevolence.

Without opening her eyes, Leia said, "Snoke. And here I thought you'd make Ben murder me."

"The brat had his own part to play. I can't risk his losing his faith now."

 _"Ben isn't here. He ran away."_ The gentle, loving touch inside her mind soothed the discomfort in her joints.

"Send him in. You know I won't tell you anything. You're not a gifted enough telepath."

The blow was entirely mental, and more painful than the droids. "Your death is going to be remembered for centuries. The Republic is dead. The Resistance will crumble. I will rise."

"Same old boast. Don't you dark lord types ever learn new tricks?

Snoke placed a clammy hand on Leia's face. She felt him attacking the edges of her mind. He dropped his hand. "Oh, I have one you haven't seen before. Until now, I could only absorb the Force from the Dark Side. It's taken me decades to develop a way to drain someone filled with disgusting Light, and your brother died before I could bring him before my remarkable machine. You'll have to do."

She saw his plan clearly, like a light show bursting in brilliant color against the night sky, and for the first time, her will faltered. Snoke had supped on his own disciples, using their natural gifts as draughts for his own nourishment. He had intended to feed on the most powerful Jedi the Light had seen, but Luke had died. Leia also had stores of Force energy in her tired old frame. Her father's legacy to her was to create one of the most powerful potentials ever born. She would fill Snoke like an ever-flowing fountain, and he would use his stolen gifts to complete his takeover.

"You've had Ben since he was a child. Don't tell me you're too attached to him to eat him."

"Your father knew what I was. He tried to have me eradicated. You should know, I take great pleasure in urinating on his grave on the anniversary of my escape from his clutches."

She laughed. She couldn't help it. "I never went that far. You and I should have met long ago. We could have formed a social club."

"Imagine my surprise one day when I'd gone to perform my yearly ritual, and there was a creature of great Force energy digging the bastard up. Full of anger, full of questions. Very disappointed in you for not telling him the truth. I could have eaten him up right then, bones and all." He bent intimately towards her ear. "But I don't eat children."

"Such a saint."

"A stupid little nerf calf stumbles right into the predator's pit. An animal would strike and have its meal, and be done. An intelligent being does not. Today the calf is small, hardly a mouthful. Lure him from his home fields into your care, feed him fresh grasses and sweet milk, let him grow fat on compliments and nursed grudges. Teach your prize to herd and to hunt for you, make him rich in the juiciest darkness with his own kills, until he's full-grown and ready for the slaughter." Snoke practically salivated. "Hunters eat their meat once. Farmers dine every night. Patience allows for a great feast."

"Ben walked away from your snare. He's not here for dinner."

"Kylo Ren will return. I can feel him drawing closer to the base even now. I'll have his power, and I'll have yours, and not only will I have ended Vader's lineage but I will have destroyed it utterly. No power left in the galaxy will stand against me."

Leia didn't move. She'd survived so much death. She had withstood all losses with her faith in herself and in the long arc of justice intact. This hideous creature had destroyed her family for power and for needless revenge.

She struck once, aiming all the energy she could summon into a single blow. Snoke flew across the room, rattling his bones on the far wall. Leia climbed to her feet, not caring that rage drove her now, not afraid of the power she'd always known was hers to claim if she gave in just once to the hate etching rivers along her soul.

Leia flung waves of Force energy against Snoke, shoving him deeper into the wall, ready to crush and maim.

Every moment of happiness had been ripped from her. Every hope she'd had to break free of her family's curse had been stolen from her arms and dashed on jagged stones. Was this what had finally claimed Anakin Skywalker for the Dark Side? The promise of vengeance for all wrongs, flowing like quicksilver from the center of her being into crackling, seething fire at her fingertips? All she must do was seize her destiny and accept the fate she'd been offered since the day of her birth.

Vader had wanted to rule the galaxy with his son at his side. Leia could choose that path now, striking down Snoke and ruling in his stead, rejoined with her own son at long last. None would dare stand against them as they shaped the galaxy to their own desires. And she did look fantastic in black.

The only price would be her soul.

Invisible arms lifted her, crashing her into the ceiling and letting her drop painfully to the hard floor. Ribs cracked. She felt his stolen power whipping around her. He'd consumed the last of his pupils before coming into the cell. She might have defeated him on a different day.

Snoke walked over to her, breath coming in hitches. "Untrained. Such a pity. You could have become the Darkest Queen the galaxy has ever known. I could have fed upon you for weeks."

She didn't reply. The rage lingered within her, but the power curdled, undirected and fading.

 _"Luke, can you hear me? Please say you can hear me."_ He'd leave her side now. He'd seen her yield to temptation.

 _"I'm here. We're here. Don't be frightened."_ Luke's presence exuded kindness. They'd forgiven each other much worse. _"If Han still had a physical body, he'd be very turned on right now."_

_"Really not the right time, kid."_

Leia choked out a sad laugh through the pain in her ribs. _"Snoke's going to use me to destroy everything. I can't let him. I need to learn to stop my own heart. Teach me. Please."_

Snoke opened the door of the cell. "Bring her."

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

* * *

"Sir," said Markson. General Hux ignored her.

The Supreme Leader had ordered many preparations for Organa's execution, and put Hux in charge of arranging the elaborate viewing structure. No one in the galaxy would miss this. Hux himself wanted to shoot the bitch and be finished. Shoot her useless pup as well, instead of dragging him back for questioning. Hux had no patience for Jedi.

"Sir!"

"What is it?" he snapped.

"There's a shuttle ordering landing privileges. It matches the description of the ship the Resistance leader Dameron was last seen in. With the Stormtrooper."

The Stormtrooper. Hux held his sigh. FN-2187 had caused him no end of grief. The word was that he'd aided in the devastating loss of Starkiller Base. Worse, from Hux's point of view, FN-2187's defection had started an unfortunate wave of questioning in many other Stormtroopers. Fifteen had attempted to defect, and two dozen had unionized demanding proper wages. Wages! They were soldiers bound to the First Order. Ridiculous. Hux had spent more time executing his own Stormtroopers in the last three weeks than he had shot Resistance members. Something had gone wrong with the subfrequency, but none of the technicians had discovered anything amiss. No one said that Kylo Ren had defected, but Hux wondered, and wondered too if his dark Jedi cronies had felt the same urge. Hux had certainly disposed of enough black-clad bodies over the last month.

"Fire all weapons."

"Sir, the transmission has Kylo Ren's personal codes. He's demanding to speak to you."

Hux nearly didn't. He nearly told Markson to assume this was a trick and to blow the shuttle out of the sky.

Nearly.

"Ready weapons. Open the channel."

The viewscreen changed. Ren stood there in his dark robes, haughty and stupid. His mask gave nothing away. "Took you long enough."

"I didn't recognize you without your own shuttle. Have a temper tantrum on your way?"

"I wish to land. Lower the shields."

"Sorry." This was delightful. Hux knew he could only torment Ren so far before one of those tantrums was directed his way. He took enormous pleasure in finding that line and staying on the safe side. "I'm afraid I can't do that until we've confirmed your identity."

"I sent my codes. Can't you read?" He flared his lightsaber. If Hux goaded the imbecile enough, perhaps he'd attack and crash his own ship.

"I can't confirm you're not a Resistance spy under the mask. The last people seen aboard that ship were Dameron and FN-2187."

"Dameron's dead." Ren turned and grabbed down behind the pilot's chair, dragging a scared human male with bound hands. "As you can see, I've captured FN-2187. I have another prisoner in the back, and very little patience left. Open the damn shield. Now." He squeezed his fist, and Hux's throat closed with a gasp. Ren broke the transmission and his hold.

Hux truly despised that man. "Open the shields and send a landing authorization. Send guards to greet him, and detain him. Inform the Supreme Leader that the spoiled child has returned."

The good thing about his underlings was their lack of questions. There was no "I don't understand, sir." There was only obedience. Had Lord Snoke beaten that lesson into Kylo Ren's sallow hide a decade ago, the whelp might not be under arrest now.

* * *

"They'd better buy this," said Poe. He'd crawled into the cavity of a panel Rey had carefully excavated. He hated small spaces. She'd promised not to affix the bolts, but his heart hammered that she'd do it anyway, lock him inside this panel where he'd starve, only to be found weeks later by First Order flunkies searching out the source of the bad odor.

"They will." Rey hesitated, then she handed him her lightsaber. "Keep this for me." The metal lay warm in his hand.

"You're sure?"

"We'll want it near. I can't trust Kylo with it, and Finn and I will be searched. I'm counting on you." Poe had heard better pep talks.

"All right. Shut me in. Good luck."

"You, too."

"Hey," he said, blocking the panel with his hand. "One thing. If I don't make it out of this mess, promise me you'll look out for our little fluffken. He needs someone to keep an eye on him. He's too nice."

She smiled with a wan expression. Rey had been distant for the last leg of the trip, sitting in silent meditation in the passenger area with Ren next to her. "One last lesson," he'd said, annoyed at the interruption when Finn had asked them what they were doing.

Finn was positive Rey was coming back after the mission. The more he watched her, the more Poe was sure she was already gone forever.

She took his hand and shook it. "The same for you. Whatever happens to me, swear to watch over him."

"Agreed."

* * *

Finn wasn't scared. Finn was pants-wettingly terrified. The gangplank lowered to reveal about a legion of his former co-workers, all armed, none friendly. Captain Phasma stood in front. He might have imagined the slight dents in her armor from the garbage chute they'd dumped her into. The thought cheered him. Something had to.

"You did something right, I see," said Phasma. "How did you locate the traitor?"

Ren's face couldn't be seen under his mask. Finn had to imagine the eye roll. Fortunately for their plan, he didn't have to pretend to be a pretentious ass. "I used my brain, Captain. These two," he shoved Finn into Rey, "have been spotted together ever since Dameron's droid went missing. Find the girl, find the traitor. As I said."

"You were supposed to retrieve Skywalker. Instead, he's dead due to your incompetence. You were ordered to kill his new apprentice, but here she is, alive and well. Are you sure the traitor didn't turn himself in to you? It's the only possible explanation for how you managed."

Ren lit his lightsaber, which came uncomfortably close to Finn's torso. "For someone who lowered the shields to Starkiller Base, you're exceptionally brave today, Captain. I'm surprised Lord Snoke hasn't had you arrested for treason."

Finn said, "If you two want some alone time to fight, we could just go." Rey caught his eye and smirked.

The red lightsaber came up to his throat. "The only reason you're alive is because I'm sure General Hux has been privately inventing new ways to kill someone, and I didn't want to deny him the pleasure of destroying you personally. Be still."

Phasma said, "Odd that you should mention arrest, Kylo Ren. My troops haven't gathered for these sorry prisoners. The Supreme Leader is very disappointed in you. He's ordered me to drag you before him." She leaned in, her helmet gleaming. "I've heard he's fed up with your silly little order of pretend Knights. You may want to grovel when you reach his feet." She raised her blaster. "I know you can stop a blaster bolt. We've all seen the trick. I feel you're not capable of stopping five hundred at once, but I would love for you to give me a reason to find out."

"As it happens, I am eager to see my Master and present these gifts to him." The arrogant prick actually led the way to Snoke's chambers, forcing Phasma to fall in behind him.

"Take FN-2187 to his cell," she said. "Execute the other."

Forget the plan. The plan was stupid. "Rey!" Finn was instantly grabbed by three Stormtroopers, one of whom kneed him in the groin, and another punched him in the kidney. Pain exploded in his entire body as he fell to his side. He saw two more troopers take aim at Rey.

"Enough!"

The troopers grabbing him were yanked away by the Force. The two with the guns found them pulled from their hands. Ren stood there with his hand raised.

"I told you, I intend to give these gifts to Lord Snoke. Do not damage his property."

"You don't give orders any longer!"

Finn watched through streaming eyes as Ren stalked back to her, and stood with his own helmet facing hers. "Captain, you know how little patience I have, and you are testing the last of it. Unless you want my next trick, as you call it, to be decompressing this bay with us standing here, I'd suggest you remember whom you're dealing with."

"You wouldn't."

"I wouldn't use the old Jedi trick for surviving in vacuum that Skywalker taught me when I was eleven? No, of course not. Why would I possibly do that when I could gasp and die with the rest of you rabble?" He touched his mask to hers. "Let's find out together."

_"Rey? Is he actually that crazy? I think he's actually that crazy."_

She didn't reply in his thoughts. He wondered if she heard him.

Phasma blinked first. Metaphorically. "The prisoners may go to see the Supreme Leader together. All three of them."

Finn was dragged to his feet. He looked into the helmet of someone he probably knew. Blinking the pain from his eyes he thought about the plan. This wasn't any better of a plan.

"You don't have to do this, you know," he said in a squeaky gasp. It had sounded cooler and more confident in his head. "They raised us to do this, but you don't have to accept that destiny. You can make your own."

"Move along." The trooper shoved him against Rey.

"You all right?" she whispered.

"I'll be better with some ice. A lot of ice. You ever been to Hoth?"

"No talking," said the closest trooper.

_"You can't get through to them one by one. Not now. That's the way to start a revolution."_

_"I'm not a revolutionary."_

_"You're a symbol. They've been talking about you. Their brains are full of you."_ Rey closed her eyes as they walked. Around them, Finn noticed the troopers losing the formation of their march. At his wrists, he felt a silent twitch as the lock on his binders released. He moved his hands to cover. If he showed that he was free now, he'd be free and dead.

The party stopped moving. Ren turned, and Phasma raised her blaster again. Ren said, "She's trying something. Bring her forward with me, away from the other prisoner."

Rey was dragged away from him, her eyes blinking open. Around him, Finn heard voices muttering. Had she gone into all their heads? Was she that strong in the Force?

Ren turned his head. "You may take FN-2187 to his cell."

"Changed your mind?"

"If this one is showing her powers, I'd like not to have my attention divided." Ren grabbed Rey by the neck, shoving her roughly in front of himself.

Finn held onto his tiny electronic key digging painfully into his cheek as he was forced away from Rey and towards the detention block. He let them push him, and fell again when he was kicked in the knee well out of sight of the others. Still he held onto his binders. Not yet.

"I've heard they plan to exsanguinate you over three days," said one of the troopers escorting him.

The one who kicked him said, "They're going to cut a piece off each hour. We've been placing bets on what's getting cut off when."

The third trooper said nothing.

"You better lock me up tight. I'm as dangerous as General Organa."

"Then you're another weak old woman who's going to die screaming." The third one shoved him inside. "We'd bring a screen in here for you to view her execution, but it's scheduled for a few minutes from now. You'll have to watch the recording. It will give you something to do over the next three days." Mouthy leaned in. "My friend here thinks they'll start with your toes and make you stand the whole time as they're removed, then take your fingers one by one. Me, I'd start with your face. Cut out your lying tongue first, and after that one ear filled with Resistance lies then the other."

"You're an ass, Seven," said the third trooper. "Come on."

They locked the door. No window. No way to see if someone stood guard or if all three had returned to their posts. He didn't have time to wait around.

Okay. He was in position. Use the Force, Finn, he thought, and wished he knew how. He closed his eyes and tried to listen with his brain. Someone was standing out there. He didn't know the soldier, but he didn't have to. They'd all been taken as little kids and turned into something they weren't. Sure, some were natural bullies, but most were just like him. He had to hope he was dealing with another lost child.

_"Hey."_ He breathed. _"Can you hear me? You should know, you're better than this. You're meant for more than this. You can choose."_

He spit out the miniature key, smaller than a fingernail. He'd nearly swallowed it when his testicles had been half-crushed. He placed it against the lock. _"They don't have to control you."_

The cell door slid open.

The trooper standing guard already had a blaster pointed at Finn's head.

This was a terrible plan.

* * *

They searched the ship.

Poe didn't let himself breathe until the last of the boots left his hearing. Carefully, he pushed open the hatch for the panel. Sharp pains ran down his arms and legs from the cramped position, and he half-fell to the floor.

"Ow."

Creeping silently, he returned to the cockpit, keeping out of sight of the viewscreen. The trackers were active. He wasn't surprised to see Finn led away from Rey. He'd be taken to the prison level, where General Organa was. All Poe had to do was ensure the ship was ready to leave, and if he could, help them escape.

The communicator was still set to the First Order frequencies. He turned the sound on low, hoping to catch more intel.

All troops were ordered to come to the main viewing area, or to turn on their private viewscreens. The execution was scheduled for fifteen minutes from now. Lord Snoke would be delayed in his arrival.

He heard mutters from one of Finn's private chatter lines: _"It's that fool Kylo Ren again." "The Supreme Leader ought to shoot him at the same time." "Don't let them hear you say that."_

Despite his bitter enjoyment to confirm everyone here hated the obnoxious bastard as much as he did, Poe didn't like the schedule. They'd caused a delay, but that didn't leave Finn any wiggle room to get free from his cell and find General Organa. The plan wasn't going to work.

He clipped the lightsaber to his belt and covered up with his cloak. He'd stick out badly in a sea of Stormtroopers no matter what. He kept his eyes peeled. Fortunately, they were all worried about finding a screen to watch Poe's boss be killed. He wasn't sure how he was going to prevent that yet. The original plan relied on stealth, but their ace in the hole relied on stomping his feet whenever he didn't get his way.

Come to think of it, Poe did remember that second party.

"Okay," he said to himself. "Finn's that way. Which means the General is probably that way. Looks like I'm going that way."

The weird thing was, he wasn't frightened. He was on the enemy base, surrounded by people who'd be glad to shoot him dead. His friends were nowhere to be seen, and their safety depended on trusting someone who not only had tried to murder each of them, but who was very clear about his intention to kill them all as soon as he had the chance.

Poe pressed his back against a dip in the corridor wall, allowing five troopers to march past without seeing him.

He ought to be scared witless. Instead, the life and death stakes exhilarated him. Yeah, they might all die. They might not make it in time to save the General. But then again, they might.

His confidence lasted all of two corridors before he was trapped between two groups of Stormtroopers, neither of which saw him yet but wouldn't miss him for long.

There was always the old one about luring a trooper around a corner and knocking him out for his clothes. It was worth a try.

It turned out the Stormtroopers knew that one, too. They surrounded him instantly.

"Hi, guys," he said, sticking his arms up in surrender.

* * *

Kylo forced himself to kneel. Behind him, two of Phasma's guards yanked Rey down to her knees as well. "You will kneel in front of the Supreme Leader," Phasma said in a low voice.

Lord Snoke tapped the arm of his chair impatiently. "Your failures are truly staggering, my idiot apprentice."

"I apologize for my delay."

"Your delay is not at issue. You failed to bring me Luke Skywalker. You failed to destroy General Organa. You failed even to destroy this pathetic child. Cut her down now and I will consider calling off your execution."

He raised his head to Snoke. He lit his lightsaber and turned to where Rey was held. Her skin glowed pink in the light of his blade, bright enough for him to see the fearful jump of her pulse at her throat. She still didn't trust him, would never believe him. She knew him too well.

He clicked off the lightsaber. "No, my Master."

"You have lost the last of my patience. I admit to some affection towards you for our shared past. You were my first apprentice. How you disappoint me now."

"I know I have made mistakes, but I have learned from them. I have brought you something of great value. I told you I could bring the girl to our cause, and I have. She is a powerful prize."

"She's a minor pest. Your infatuation with her is obvious and pathetic. Next time, visit a prostitute. When a whore manipulates you with her body, it's only for money."

Under his mask, no one could see the flinch. "Read her soul. Her mind is too well-shielded for you to touch, but you can feel the aura of her Force." He glanced back at Rey. "Before you carelessly throw away a gem, appraise it."

Lord Snoke tilted his head. "Fascinating." He smiled, and it was a hungry smile. "My apologies. I doubted you."

"Sir?" asked Phasma in a worried tone.

"She's been corrupted. I can taste the shape of the Dark Side surrounding her. My apprentice has done well."

Rey blanched and struggled to her feet. "No. That's not true. I haven't fallen to the Dark Side."

Snoke's smile spread. "Oh, child. You may not be all the way ripened, but I can feel how plump and tender you've become. How much anger you feel. How many minds you've pushed for your own purposes. There remains some regrettable Light within you, and had we more time, I would watch you snuff it dead."

"If you'll take my advice, have her slay FN-2187. There's an affection between them. Two problems, one simple solution."

"Your advice is noted."

"I'm not evil. I will fight you!"

"Yes. I hope you do." Snoke nodded. "Kylo Ren, this is an acceptable tribute. Captain, you may release him, if you ever had him under your control. You may all leave."

He rose to his feet. "Master, I would like to pay my respects to the General before her execution."

"Your mind is shrouded to me. Not getting sentimental, are you?"

"Have no fear. I'll leave Organa's death to you. I merely wish to savor the expression on her face when I describe Skywalker's demise in gory detail. I want her to know I lured his would-be successor into my bed and into this trap with a pathetic sob story of wanting to change my evil ways and save my dear mother's life." He brushed Rey's cheek with his glove as she shuddered away. "I want the General to die understanding how thoroughly she has failed."

"Kylo, don't do this." Rey's face was frightened. She struggled with her captors, sending out a desperate tendril of Force energy towards him, snatching for his lightsaber. His grip was faster, and this one had always been his. "Don't leave me with him. You know what he'll do." She stopped struggling. "Please. I'll be your apprentice. I'll do anything. Stop this."

"Enjoy your meal, Master," he said, and walked out as Rey screamed his name.

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

Finn kept his hands up. "Hi. Isn't this the refresher?"

The trooper pointing the blaster at him didn't waver. "Back inside, traitor."

"What's your name?"

"My designation is none of your business." She gestured with the gun. "Go on."

He lowered his hands. Without a weapon, he knew he couldn't fight her.

"Go!"

"You don't have to do this. You don't have to do what they say. They kidnapped us. They brainwashed us. We don't have to be who they want us to be. You have a name. Do you remember it?"

"Five of my friends died two days ago because they agreed with you, FN-2187."

"It's Finn. My name's Finn. Do you remember what yours used to be? I'm sorry your friends died. Who ordered their deaths?"

"We live to serve the Order." He knew this litany. Live to serve. Die to serve.

"Not any more. We can choose how we live."

"General Hux made them an example. None of us are allowed to talk about you."

"I'm not any different than you are. What was your name?"

"I don't remember." The blaster lowered. "I don't want to be killed because of you. I don't want my friends to die because of you."

"We've got a ship." Which was already kind of small, but they'd worry about that later. "You could leave with us. It's great out there. It's beautiful and scary, and people fall in love. You wouldn't believe it all."

The mask faced him impassively. Then she removed it. "You're right. I wouldn't."

She fell to the floor, clutching her knee. "Ow!" she said, in the worst fake-acting he'd ever heard. She held up the blaster to him. "I can't believe you overpowered me so easily and stole my weapon."

Finn took the blaster. "Aren't you coming?"

"I've been gravely injured and will need medical attention while you're escaping. Fortunately the infirmary isn't far from where your ship is docked, and two of my friends work there."

"Take your masks off when you go on board. I don't want to accidentally shoot you."

He knew so few of his former comrades under the masks, and she was just another face, sweaty and plain and too young to have been taught the things they had all learned. He'd recognize her on the ship. She nodded and redonned the helmet.

* * *

Most of the pain had receded except for the throb in her ribs. Leia had difficulty keeping her feet as she was dragged to wherever they intended to kill her, and she had no interest in making their job easier. "Get moving," said one of her guards.

"Thanks, but I'll stay here." She got a sharp shove for her trouble. Could she goad one of them into shooting her? Luke had gone silent in her mind, if he'd ever been more than a cruel hallucination.

"I've heard the reason you wear those masks is because they scar you with acid as children. Is that true?" That earned her a kick, but she knew they wouldn't go further. They were under orders.

When they reached their destination, one of the guards shackled each wrist to a post, pulling her arms uncomfortably above her shoulders. The other poked her in the chest. "I lost friends at Starkiller Base," he said.

"So did I."

Leia stood on a small platform that was covered by stains she didn't wish to examine more closely. The Order took out vengeance on its own just as readily as on its enemies. Finn had been an excellent source of information, funneled to her quietly by Commander Dameron.

"Not a spy," he'd said the day after Finn woke up.

"Are you sure?" She'd been aching, and the mere thought of ferreting out a First Order spy, and what she'd be happy to do to the next one she met, well, she was her father's daughter in some respects.

"I'm sure," Poe had said, and she'd trusted his judgement.

Leia smiled remembering the earnest belief on his face. Unfairly, this bought her another kick. "Just thinking. You can kill me, but my friends will always live to see another day. That's why we're going to win."

"That's not what I heard," said the trooper with the busy leg. "I heard that Skywalker's dead, and that Kylo Ren has returned with the traitor and with Dameron's head."

She'd left them on Yavin, no matter how unwillingly. They would all die for nothing. She closed her eyes. 

"Knock it off," said the other trooper. "Go check the holoprojector again."

The first trooper marched off. The second one said, "No standards at all."

They were hidden behind a vast, dark curtain from what felt like a huge space slowly filling with people. An audience. Snoke would raise the curtain and present his prize prisoner to his troops, sending out the image on every broadcast frequency as he engaged his infernal machine. He'd drain Leia of her life, drain her of the Force, and he would use her birthright to destroy everything she'd built.

Still not the worst situation Leia had ever found herself in, but things looked bleak. She tried one last time to summon the same power that had come to her in her anger. Grief wouldn't budge a keyring from a distracted guard. Neither would despair.

She turned her head to the Stormtrooper next to her. "I'm not going to ask you to let me go, but if you'd shoot me now, I'd consider it a bigger favor than you'd believe."

"I can't do that." The Stormtrooper leaned in. "I have to know something. Is it true? Did you meet him?"

Leia squinted. She'd met many famous and infamous people during her life. "You'll have to be more specific." Vader? Luke? She'd never met the Emperor.

"FN-2187." There was a terrified excitement in his voice. "Did you meet him? Is he real?"

"Finn, what have you done?" she asked herself, very quietly. "Yes. He's real. Nice kid. You know, the Resistance is always looking for more young faces with bright ideas." There were worse ways to die than talking like a recruitment poster.

"Leave us." The voice was low and commanding, echoing with mind-bending demand. Leia lifted her head and stared at her greatest failure.

There were much, much worse ways to die.

"Yes, sir," said the Stormtrooper, hurrying away without a backwards glance.

He was tall.

The few videos and holos she'd managed to find, the records that survived from the devastated worlds in his wake, these had given her glimmers of image without perspective. Leia had wanted perspective, just as much as she'd wanted to crack open that mask and see his face. She'd hoped when he was tiny that he'd grow up to be as tall as Han. She'd hoped so much.

The ridiculous lightsaber flared. He always had to show off.

"I'm not afraid of you, Ben. I will never be afraid of you."

Her son approached the small platform, and stepped up to join her, towering over her. She tilted her head up at him, wishing he'd remove that silly mask. She'd like to see him just one more time before he killed her. The few minutes back on Yavin hadn't been enough.

Ben lifted his arm. She heard the crackle of power in his lightsaber, and remembered years of watching Luke practice, of trying her own hand briefly until she knew she didn't dare, of watching the recordings her brother had shown her from Ben's time at the school. How proud she'd been.

She remembered holding him, tiny and red and full of all her wishes for something good to come out of the wreck of her past.

The blade flashed twice. Her wrists fell free. He doused his lightsaber and clicked it to his belt, then grabbed hold of Leia as she half-collapsed. Tall and strong. He had the best of both of them as well as their worst.

He yanked off the mask.

"Why not? Why couldn't you have tried, just once, to be frightened of me?" He sounded angry, but he'd always been angry. Ben held her upright against himself as he helped her down from the platform. His armor was solid. She tried to touch his mind, but he was a blank wall. She couldn't even sense him next to her.

"We have to get away from here as fast as we can. Snoke wants to drain us both." She shouldn't want to protect him still, not now.

"I know. My friends and I came for you." He led her past a ruined machine, which he'd clearly destroyed with his lightsaber. The remnants sparked and hissed. Snoke wouldn't be using that today.

She was tired, and she was sure she had internal injuries, and her whole world had just been set on its side. "I'm glad you finally made some friends, Ben."

"Stop calling me that."

"It is your name, not whatever Snoke calls you. Your dad gave you that name." And your father and I agreed, she didn't add aloud.

He breathed heavily, and she was sure it wasn't from exertion. "Kenobi killed thousands during the war, and he left his closest friend in all the universe to burn alive rather than risking his own precious soul to end the suffering. You named me for a monster and a maker of monsters. What did you think would happen?"

"He died to save our lives the day we all met. Even monsters can choose to be heroes." Her own breath came hard. "Why did you come back for me?" Part of her expected this to be a trick. Ben had murdered Han and nothing would ever wipe away that crime, nor the rest of the deaths he'd caused. Leia could barely walk. He could kill her easily, yet here he was helping her, half-carrying her as they hurried. Luke's spell hadn't worked to change him. Leia didn't believe for a moment that his new friends, whoever they were, had changed him. "Tell me why you're here."

He frowned at her. He had Leia's own frown, she knew from a thousand mirrors. "I don't like being lied to. You lied to me about your parents. You lied to me about your husbands."

"We were protecting you. Every single decision we made was out of love for you."

"Obviously. Love turns otherwise intelligent people into fools and deceivers. Snoke doesn't have that excuse. He lied to me and used me, and I'm going to disembowel him." Ben stopped suddenly. "Wait here."

From around the corner came a cadre of Stormtroopers. Ben put his mask back on and stood in front of her. "There's been a change of orders," he said, falling into a sneering tone of command. "Lord Snoke commanded...."

"Halt!" said the first trooper, blaster raised. "All soldiers, prepare to fire." Ben flared his lightsaber again.

"Wait!" shouted a voice from behind them. To Leia's surprise and delight, Commander Dameron shoved his way in front of them. Putting his back to Ben, he held up his hands and said, "Don't shoot him!"

"He's one of the top members of the Order!" The Stormtrooper didn't sound happy to hear that.

"He used to be. I don't really care who he works for right now." Poe hurried to Leia's side. "General, are you all right?"

"I've been better. Explain?"

Poe waved his hand. "Funny story. It turns out there are a lot of people working here who don't want to be. These nice people," he said in a strained voice, "just surrendered to me a few minutes ago, on the promise we'll take them with us."

"How big is your ship?"

He wiggled his hand. "Eh?" One of the more blaster-happy troopers aimed at Ben. Poe said, "Hey. Hey! No shooting Kylo Ren. Anybody gets to shoot this guy today, I call firsties."

"You can try again and you'll miss again," said Ben. "We have been over this."

Leia said, "We need to go. Now."

Poe asked Ben, "Where are the fluffkens? You had them last."

"I am not a fluffken," said Finn, appearing at the end of a corridor and flanked by another half-dozen Stormtroopers. "By the way, I've made some friends. They'd like a ride. Hello, General. I see they found you already."

Leia started counting helmets. "Finn, I don't know what you've done, but you're cleaning up after all of them."

"What's our next move, sir?" asked one of the Stormtroopers who'd come with Poe. As Poe and Ben both turned to answer, Leia saw whom the trooper was addressing.

Finn's mouth popped open, but only for a second. He recovered. "We're getting out of here. We'll need," he counted as quickly as Leia had, "at least three ships. And we're missing one member of my team."

"His team?" she said to her son.

"'Sir?'" he replied sourly.

Poe just grinned at him with unmistakeable fondness.

"Where's Rey?" asked Finn.

Ben said, "Snoke's quarters."

Finn's expression turned to something darker. "You left her there with him?"

"Rey is distracting him. Lord Snoke believes she's turned to the Dark Side."

"Why?"

"Because I turned her."

"You did what?" Finn's voice was cold. In response, more of the Stormtroopers lifted their weapons.

"Snoke had to believe. Had I told you that part of the plan, you would have overreacted. Rey sends her regards to everyone. She's telling us to leave without her but she doesn't mean it." His voice dropped, and Leia swore she could hear him smiling as he said, "You don't. Because I can tell when you're lying, that's why." Ben turned to Finn. "She needs our help and won't say so because she doesn't know the difference between being brave and being foolish."

Ben had just said he couldn't stand being lied to, but he was teasing Rey about it instead of snarling at her. He'd nearly murdered Finn, but now Ben was asking him for help. Poe had stepped in front of a blaster for his sake. Leia had clearly missed several memos and a ten-hour meeting. "He's mentally communicating with Rey? I thought they hated each other."

Only Poe Dameron could be that expressive with a single shrug. She'd seen the same on any number of mornings, finding him emerging from the wrong barracks in yesterday's clothes. "Well, you know." Same lack of excuse, too.

Leia looked at Ben. "Oh. Well. Rey is a very nice girl." Or she was. Turned her how?

His entire body contorted in clear embarrassment. "Not now, Mother."

Finn started to give orders. More amazingly, people listened. "Commander Dameron, the General is injured. Get her and the rest of these people to the docking bay."

Ben told them, "Remove your helmets." Not a soul stirred until Finn nodded. The transformation shocked her. One minute, they were surrounded by grim warriors in white masks. The next, she was in a sea of kids, none of them older than her son, who was the only one still in his own mask.

Poe unclipped a lightsaber from his belt and handed it to Finn. "Give this to Rey. And don't dawdle." Ben and Finn hurried down a corridor together. "Let's get you out of here."

Leia took a breath. "Soldiers, you want to join the Resistance?" She saw nods, a few firm, most scared. "Fine. Get to your docking bay and ready us some ships. Make sure there are enough for everyone."

"General?"

"Commander, take your new recruits. I'll join you shortly. I'd like to have a word with Snoke before we go."

"I appreciate the desire, but you can't." He saw the look on her face. "Ma'am." Her expression didn't change. "Fine, but I'm going with you. Ma'am." He pointed at five of the gathered Stormtroopers. "Come with us. Put your helmets back on. We're not finished here yet."

* * *

They made it most of the way before four troopers stepped into their path. Ren waved his hand to move them from the corridor, flinging the troopers into the wall where they fell unconscious or dead.

"Hold back on that next time. Maybe I can talk to them."

"Doubtful. We're close to the transmitter here, and now that the mutiny is spreading, Command will have increased the signal power."

A number of things came to his attention. The first was Rey, and if Kylo Ren was worried for her safety, they couldn't afford to tarry. He ran. "What transmitter?"

"The subfrequency. It broadcasts in your helmets along with your orders, and reinforces loyalty to the Order. There's a separate transmitter near Snoke's quarters. One of his inventions."

Finn wanted to ask why he didn't know about it, but the higher ups would have no incentive to let on, would they? "You knew."

"Of course. Why do you think you were always ordered to keep your helmet on?" Ren's own helmet gleamed. "I ordered yours to be examined when we recovered it. The receiver had a small malfunction."

"That's not. No. I chose to leave the First Order! Luke said I have Force sensitivity, that it helped me choose."

"What does it matter why you chose to leave? You left."

Finn had felt special up to now. He'd thought he had changed on his own, that he'd helped others to change. Like so many deluded fools who'd thought they'd talked to gods, he was just another ordinary guy with a short circuit in his communicator.

He felt a slap on the back of his head, and looked up to see Ren fuming. "You do not start doubting yourself while we are about to face Lord Snoke. You will get us all killed."

Finn rubbed his head. "One, never do that again. Two, stay the hell out of my mind, you freak."

"You broke free of the subfrequency and threw yourself head first into the Resistance. Despite your terror, you continue to run into danger instead of away from it. You perform brave acts you don't want to do on behalf of others. Congratulations. You're a hero. Now act like one."

The compliment warmed him. "Thanks. You usually spend your time insulting me."

"You're still a terrible kisser."

"That's more like it."

* * *

From the point of view that she wasn't dead yet, Rey was having a good day. From any other point of view, she was floundering badly.

She braced for another Force attack, throwing up her arms to buffer the blow. Snoke had leapt immediately, just as soon as the door had closed behind the last of her guards. She'd kept up the wailing a bit longer for the show, dodging him only half a second before he landed where she would have been. Since then, staying alive had become her primary aim.

"Your destiny brought you to me, child. The hour of your death has been foretold since the moment of your birth."

Rey had felt her destiny move her. She'd been drawn to the casket in Maz's catacombs. She'd been led to Luke Skywalker. She'd been yanked along as though on a chain into Kylo's self-destructive spiral. Destiny had much to answer for if its ultimate goal was to drop her here to die.

"Poor girl. Drifting into darkness without ever understanding. Led along by a faithless lover and abandoned in the viper's pit. I should be very angry if I were you."

She was. Rey had told herself these last several days that all her choices had been for the right reasons. She'd stolen, she'd lied, and these were merely part of her old existence, scavenging for what she needed. But Kylo had been an admirable teacher in so many other aspects. Living in his mind had become part of her. She breathed him like air, sometimes foul and murky, sometimes pleasant and cool, always inside her. He'd shown her how simple it was to poke into the minds of those around her, those who couldn't fight back. It had been so easy to push them towards what she wanted.

She was furious with Kylo for the stains she felt on her own soul.

_"I never made you do anything you didn't choose yourself. I could have."_

_"I still hate you."_ She ducked again, this time too slowly. The mental blow from the awful creature rocked her.

"Excellent," said Lord Snoke, his voice drilling into her, trying to etch through her shields. "Let that hatred and anger flow." He grinned lasciviously. "It's delectable."

She could only run so far, and she could only dodge him so long. She had power, and she used what she had at hand, throwing the table, books, anything she could find, but she was hampered with her own worry. What if the Force surging through her was the final manifestation of the Dark Side in her? She could kill Snoke, she was almost sure, but if she did, wouldn't that make her just as evil? How would she know the difference?

"You are a delight to chase, child. I'll dig inside your mind soon enough. Even my sulking apprentice drilled into your head."

Rey felt it then, the welcoming spark of her friends returning for her. "You're right. I couldn't keep him outside of my mental shields. I tried. I pushed and pushed, and he kept finding ways in, and the only way I could fight was to slip inside his mind right back at him."

"A fatal mistake. We've known your every move." He attacked her in a flurry of wind, shoving her against the wall, where she rolled out of his way before the creature could touch her.

She smiled at him, unnerving him and keeping his eyes from the doorway. "I couldn't keep Kylo out. So I brought him inside and shielded us both together."

The red lightsaber flashed, and only a leap from Snoke saved his life from Kylo's sudden attack.

"Stand and fight!" he shouted at his former Master. Rey felt his rage rolling off him in waves. "All this time, you used me. You used all of us!" He attacked again, but Snoke was faster.

Finn reached Rey's side, and took her hands. "You okay?"

"Fine."

In an instant, she was lifted off her feet and pinned to the wall. Rey couldn't move, could barely struggle. Snoke held one hand up, keeping her in place. The other waved a power she couldn't see but felt thudding through the room, and he hit Kylo dead on, striking him to the floor where he writhed, clutching at his neck. His lightsaber fell unheeded. Rey felt the phantom fingers choking her, although his attention was fully on Kylo.

Snoke stalked closer to him. "You think I would train you, guide you, give you power, and not leave myself a door inside your mind to stop you? Gullible oaf. Spoiled, wretched child. You know nothing."

Kylo couldn't speak. She felt him strangling. She wondered if she'd lose consciousness before their link killed her, too. Finn edged closer to her. Snoke hadn't bothered to notice him.

"Only you could be foolish enough to Force bond with an enemy." He aimed a vicious kick at Kylo's stomach, which jarred through Rey, blackening her eyesight with a bombshell of pain. "I ought to keep the pair of you as breeding stock and raise a dozen powerful, brainless brats to feed on."

 _"Finn!"_ He'd struggled with the blaster he had at his side, finally lifting it and firing at his former Supreme Leader.

Rey felt the power drop, and she landed roughly on her feet, coughing for breath. She dashed to Kylo's side.

"He's mine!" The word echoed inside her, and Rey shook her head.

"Get out of here. You're a liability."

"I have to...."

"You can't fight someone who lives inside your head!" She felt the turmoil in his mind. Kylo wanted vengeance, but more than that, he was frightened. For her. Terror lay naked in his mind that Rey would be killed if he left her side now. There was no time for this. "You are useless. Go!"

He turned and ran for the door, pushing out and past.

Snoke used the Force to rip Finn's blaster away from him, clattering across the floor. "The Stormtroopers' hero. How sweet. Hux has enumerated all the ways he intends to have you killed."

Rey spun, focusing her energy to blast a sandstorm-strength wind against Snoke before he reached Finn. Snoke turned and glared at her.

"Leave him alone. You want to fight someone, fight me." She held out her hand, pulling her lightsaber from Finn's belt into her own hands.

"I would have thrown it to you."

"Sorry." She held her lightsaber up, ready to attack.

Snoke touched his communicator. "Detain Kylo Ren. I'd prefer him alive but it's not necessary."

Kylo could take care of himself, Rey knew. She felt bad for whoever tried to capture him. Right now, she had Snoke to contend with, and she threw herself at him, slicing and aiming just as she'd learned these past few weeks.

'Rid yourself of emotion and you will find your focus,' went the Jedi teachings in the old, lost books. She couldn't let herself fear that Finn would be killed, couldn't allow herself anger at what had been done to him and to them all. Love led into dangerous sinking drifts. Rey would be emotionless as stone.

Snoke fell back from her attack, reaching behind his chair for something. A green blade lit. "You didn't frisk Skywalker's body."

"There wasn't a body," she said, eyes drawn to the lightsaber in Snoke's much better trained hand. She could do this. Then he leapt over her head and attacked, and she focused on not dying as Finn dove for his blaster.

* * *

Leia felt her injuries more as they hurried. Her friend and crutch finally stopped. "You can't do this, ma'am. You're in no condition to fight. I want this guy dead, too, but you're in no shape to do it yourself."

She nodded and indicated he should let their honor guard get ahead of them a bit. As soon as they were alone, she asked him quietly, "Between you, me, and this panel, what do you think our chances are of blowing the base as we leave?"

He stood back a moment, and she felt his surprise. "You're joking, right?"

"We are in the heart of their stronghold, Commander. You took out Starkiller. If we destroy this base with their leaders here, the war is over."

He chewed his lip, thinking. She never, ever told him he looked ten years younger every time he did that. "I can see if we can rig something. But General, you go ahead and think I'm crazy if you want, but I don't think we should. Something's changed. Something big." He looked at the troopers ahead of them, whom they should catch up with soon.

She knew what he meant. She let Poe help her hobble faster. "We'll take as many of them with us as we can. I don't want to murder innocents if we can avoid it."

"Ma'am, none of us are innocents, but as someone pointed out to me, all of them were kids when they were taken by the First Order."

As he spoke, Leia saw Ben limping out of the doorway to Snoke's chambers and skulk down the corridor away from them. She wanted to call out to him, ask him where he was going, but she was too far away. She heard a shout from inside the room. Finn.

"Snoke first," she said. "Then we'll see." She didn't intend to leave this base intact.

* * *

"I don't even like Stormtroopers," he muttered to himself. Wretched, annoying people, raised to follow orders and not always good at that one job. Taken as children and brainwashed, not seduced the way he was. They couldn't even shoot straight.

Kylo knew where the transmitter room was. He could just as easily check that the power cables were secure, and that the range was turned up to full blast. Yes.

As he hurried, he felt Rey's thoughts wheeling in a desperate blur. She fought Snoke for her own life and for Finn's, and she fought for Kylo's soul because she believed it the only way to save her own. But she was falling back, afraid of her own potential, letting Snoke's verbal jabs land home.

 _"Don't tell me you're listening to him."_

_"I'm going to die because you turned me to the Dark Side."_

_"You're not on the Dark Side. If you were on the Dark Side, you wouldn't care. You're on the knife's edge. Use your rage and kill the bastard."_

He felt her resolve, and he took a moment of pride in his student's skills as she went on the attack. She was a natural who'd taught herself much, and she'd learned a bit from his uncle, but Rey had picked up that spinning trick from him, and half her stances were from the books he'd fed into her mind. Even with her improved technique, she resented how Kylo had deliberately changed her, turned part of her into a reflection of himself. He resented far more that the mirror had two faces.

Someone sensible would run away now, hoping the chaos of the day's events would cover his tracks as he escaped. Someone better than he was, someone kind, someone whose task it had always been to find the value among the refuse, she would approach the transmitter room with a plan.

Teaching changed the student, and it also changed the teacher.

The door to the room was locked, but his lightsaber slashed through it like a warm knife through Eopie butter.

Captain Phasma waited inside. "What do you want?"

"I've been ordered to check the transmitter. The subfrequency is weakening amongst the Stormtroopers. Why aren't you out there controlling your soldiers better?" Accusations worked well. Phasma on the defensive was less likely to question him.

"There's a problem with the latest upgrade to the helmet software," she said, aggravated by his interruption. She indicated the two technicians she had working there with her. "We've got to debug everything while keeping the signal strength up. The idiots keep thinking about the traitor. Is he dead yet?"

"The order hasn't been given." Stupid. They were all so stupid and trusting, following a worthless chain of command. He'd followed them as well. So stupid.

"I see." Phasma tilted her head, the sign of someone listening in on another order packet. Her blaster was still pointed at Kylo's mask. Without a word, she fired.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter coming this Sunday.


	15. Chapter 15

Snoke boiled over in rage, mind jamming against hers like a sandstorm, caustic and obliterating as he tore at her, slashing viciously with green light at her head, at her legs.

"You are nothing," he intoned, driving the words into her. "You are a speck. Your powers are miniscule compared to mine."

Invisible fingers scrabbled for Rey's throat. Snoke had been toying with her earlier, playing with his food before the claws came out to trap her tail and rip and rend. Rey fell back, keeping her guard up.

"Stolen," she managed to croak. "Not your power."

"It's mine now. I'll add yours, and Kylo Ren's, and the good General who's been so kind to deliver herself to me. All the Force you control will be mine to dominate." He tossed her hard against the wall, knocking her breath out of her and smacking her head hard on the metal.

Finn's blaster fired. Snoke's hand pushed the shot to land by the doorway, where it narrowly avoided killing Poe. Finn kept firing at him, advancing on him. The blasts flew to either side under Snoke's waved arm.

"Stop this, you impudent, disloyal speck! I am your Supreme Leader."

"No," said Finn, a cold anger on his face as he shot. "You're nothing. You're the monster under the bed. You're the imp who sneaks through the window to steal children from their cradles, the demon who plays the enchanted flute to lead them away into the dark forest."

"You will obey me!" A wave of mental energy burst through the room as Snoke said, " ** _Bow_**."

Finn swayed. Even Rey felt her knees try to buckle.

"No!" He braced his legs and stood, raising his blaster again. "We aren't children any more."

Snoke sizzled a blast of pure purple energy at him. Finn barely dropped to the floor in time.

Rey touched the well of Force power inside her, reaching around Finn. This time, her powers held. Rey snatched him away from the bolts, tugging him next to her.

_"Purple is bad. Don't get hit."_

_"Luke?"_ Of course. He'd told her the spirits in the Force watched over them. _"Do you have any better advice than 'don't get hit'?"_

_"Don't turn your back on those other Stormtroopers."_

Other? Poe and the General had come into the room, followed by guards. The guards turned their blasters onto Lord Snoke, who rolled his eyes and slammed a palm onto a communicator at his chair. "Captain, turn the transmitter to full power. The rabble are rousing again."

Rey felt the psychic energy suddenly spike. The troopers all touched their own helmets. Snoke said, "Seize them."

Instantly, they were under fire from the white-masked soldiers. She had enough power to place a force shield around Poe and General Organa, but not enough to cover herself or Finn. They ran for cover, but Snoke was fast, stolen lightsaber swinging at Finn. Rey blocked the blow, singeing them both.

Finn ducked under her arm, running towards the controlled Stormtroopers. He'd be killed. But he knew the firing patterns, and managed to plow into the first trooper, while Poe and the General took on the rest.

"Don't kill them!" Finn shouted.

"Tell them that!" Poe shouted back.

Snoke ignored the others, turning the brunt of his mental and physical onslaught against Rey. He was laser-quick as he leapt, and she'd barely learned how to fight this way. Her skills were useless in the wake of his fury. He would win his attack, maim her body, and drink her darkened soul. She was nothing in the face of him. Rey drew back and back, pressed closer to a wall she'd die against. She was....

_"Don't tell me you're listening to him."_ She could feel Kylo's irritation.

Rey blocked another blow, buying herself one step forward. _"I'm going to die because you turned me to the Dark Side."_

_"You're not on the Dark Side. If you were on the Dark Side, you wouldn't care. You're on the knife's edge. Use your rage and kill the bastard."_

Snoke swung and Rey knew.

She caught the laser blade easily on the edge of her own lightsaber, sending crackling sparks everywhere. Anger and fear were the enemies, according to one teacher. They were gifts to be used according to the other. Love had led one into chaos, and had pulled the other free.

Rey let herself feel. Anger at how this little man, this vindictive alien, had destroyed her life and the lives of the people she cared about. Fear that her friends would die because she wasn't strong enough to protect them. Love like a scorching sun for them all.

Rey was the sword, the edge of the knife, the sharp blade honed between two imperfect sides.

Power twisted and coiled inside her, pulled from the heart of the moon they stood upon, blended from the perfect logic of the Light and the deep emotion of the Dark. She let the Force move her, guiding each graceful step, anticipating his moves before he could make them. Her friends fought the poor, mesmerized puppets. Rey sought only the puppet master.

Her feet moved effortlessly from stance to stance in her battle. Sabers clashed as she blocked him easily. This was as simple as sparring, locked in a lethal dance.

Rey's hand shot through with pain.

* * *

His mask absorbed the first blast from Phasma's gun, and he blocked the second with his lightsaber, deflecting it into the wall. Instantly she began firing at him, dodging his lightsaber blade.

"Fire on him now!" she ordered her two troopers. He could fight multiple attackers easily enough, although at the moment his concentration was distracted by the very clear image of Lord Snoke bearing down on Rey with a snarl.

Kylo parried the blaster fire. Phasma raised her own weapon again and fired. His hand stung and burned as the lightsaber was destroyed.

"No more toys," she said, while he yanked the injured hand against himself. "Surrender immediately or perish."

He gathered his power and reflected the blasts the other two sent to him, not even watching as they fell dead. "I don't need a lightsaber to fight you." He willed her arms up to aim her blaster at herself. "All I have to do is make you fire." Another mental tug removed her mask. He'd never seen her face before. She was lovely, and hardly older than he was, and she burned with just as much rage.

They'd all started this as children.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "Dozens of my troops are headed this way now. You'll be killed, and we can watch each other roasting in hell."

She fired. It was unpleasant. He'd never liked her, and she'd loathed him, but he'd caused enough deaths to decide he'd finally seen his fill.

His damaged mask obscured his sight. He removed it and dropped it to the ground before turning to the transmitter, aware of the minds of the Stormtroopers headed to his position. He spent a single moment to admire the simple elegance of the transmitter. Hux's otherwise useless father had come up with the notion of training the Stormtroopers from infancy. Snoke had designed this beautiful device to maintain their loyalty.

Mustn't let the children understand what had happened to them. Mustn't let them think. Mustn't let them wonder who they really were. Must never, ever allow them to discover what they'd lost.

His anger had served him at need over his life, and had cost him so much. He drew upon his own fury now, tapping into every stolen day, every denied road he'd stepped away from while believing himself better than that path. He stoked the fire of his wrath against Snoke, and against his own quest for glory that never came to anything.

He'd had a home and people who'd loved him, and a school with other children who'd been gifted with the same talents as he, and he'd had a future and a destiny. He could have chosen any life, could have become a great Jedi or a powerful diplomat or the most skilled pilot in the galaxy, whatever he wanted to be. Instead he'd thrown away every chance, and he'd killed the ones who loved him. Worse, they still cared and still wanted to believe he was better than the awful creature he knew he'd become. Even ghosts gazed on him with utter disappointment.

The one true peer he'd ever met despised him. Forced to view himself from inside her eyes these past weeks, he could no longer look away from the desecration of his own life. From what he'd chosen to become.

Kylo Ren touched the white hot core of his own rage, directed against the sole guilty party of all his failures: the eyes he'd stopped meeting in mirrors long ago. The power of the Dark surged through him like a supernova.

He broke the transmitter with his fury.

It exploded in his face.

* * *

"Stop this now!" Finn told trooper he struggled with. "Take off your helmet! He's controlling you!"

Behind him, he felt Rey as she jumped and danced, lightsaber blazing to block every move Snoke made. With one hand, she lifted the ruins of his console and threw it at him, to shatter on his lightsaber. Snoke collapsed onto his knees, panting and bested.

Fear lit Snoke's eyes as Rey stood over him. "I know who you are, child. The orphanage where Bridger found you still had the records a week ago when I went searching for you. I've destroyed the files and I ordered them all killed. Only I can tell you who your parents were, the family name you've longed to hear." He tuned his voice into a pleading, echoing command. "Free me, and you can discover the true gifts you are heir to."

Rey wet her lips, holding her lightsaber steady. She doused the blade. "That doesn't matter. None of that ever mattered. I'm not who I am because of who my family was. I am a Jedi because I choose to be."

There was a low rumble that shook the entire room, powerful enough to jar them to their teeth. The explosion had been big, and close. The trooper he was fighting went limp. Finn kicked him off.

Rey fell to her knees. Finn instantly stopped giving a damn about the other troopers. Before he could reach her, she clutched herself and let out a scream of pure rage and pain and sorrow. For as long as he lived, and Finn lived a very long time, he never again heard anyone make that horrifying sound.

Around him, the other troopers lost their focus. The brighter ones aimed at Snoke as Finn reached Rey and held her while she convulsed in agony. More troopers came into the room, also quickly aiming their weapons at their former boss.

A small, petty part of Finn's mind congratulated himself. The rest of him was ashamed. Someone he loved was in horrific pain, and he could only imagine how much. He stroked her face and said meaningless repetitions of, "It's okay. You're going to be okay."

Poe swore. "Ma'am, I am sorry for your loss. But Rey's dying, and as usual, it's his fault."

The General's voice was hollow. "She's not dying. It just feels that way."

She limped to Rey's side and touched her shoulder. Rey held her lightsaber in a slack hand, and the General took hold. "This was my father's. Thank you for returning it."

Rey let go. "When does the pain stop?"

"I'll let you know."

"This isn't over," said Snoke. "I can rebuild. There will always be...."

General Organa lit her lightsaber and beheaded him.

The strike happened so quickly Finn almost missed it. Snoke's body crumpled. His head fell to the floor and rolled.

The General looked at the lightsaber in her hand, extinguishing the blade with a click. She flung her arm against the wall. The rod shattered into shards of useless metal. A small crystal fell to the floor, which the General trapped with her foot. Finn wouldn't have touched that gem for a million credits.

Rey used Finn's shoulder to get to her feet. "I have to see," she said in a dull, dead voice. She staggered away, towards the door. Finn went to follow her, but there were other troopers here all staring at him in confusion. She ran and was gone.

The trooper in the lead said, "What do we do now?"

"Take off your helmet. Then do whatever you want."

Poe said, "Do you have a commlink?" The troopers nodded. "Good. Put out the word. The head of the Resistance just killed your Supreme Leader, she's having a real bad day, and she's still in the building. Anyone who wants to surrender needs to do so immediately because I can only hold her back so long. Tell them now."

There was another explosion, this one from above.

The General closed her eyes. "Reinforcements. Chewie always had great timing. Tell your friends what Commander Dameron just said, and maybe I'll think about calling off the attack that just started."

"Sir," said one of the troopers, pulling away her helmet. Finn realized she meant him. "Permission to arrest General Hux."

"Sure."

She gestured to three other troopers. They were going to arrest the General. Or get killed. Finn wasn't sure which. He had other concerns.

It took him a few minutes to find where Rey had gone. The trail of destruction helped, and the scrambling rush of workers and Stormtroopers, all desperate to be somewhere else and pushing past him as they ran. As he neared the room, part of his mind expected to hear a song that he'd never known he'd been listening to. A transmitter. Not their only means of controlling the army, but a good one.

A Stormtrooper limped past him, pausing when the trooper saw Finn's face. Finn wasn't in the mood for yet another pep talk. "The war's over. Go be whoever you want to be."

Rey stood inside the room, her hand at her mouth. He took in the broken mask, and the scorched black armor and robes still settling on the floor. Nothing left but the clothes, just like when Luke had died. Finn didn't want to imagine a bunch of naked Force ghosts running around watching people. When he rejoined the Force, he wanted a lot more rest and a lot less nude supernatural voyeurism.

"Hey," he said, and she didn't object as he wrapped his arms around her. There were other bodies on the floor, one of them wearing Phasma's shiny armor, but Rey's eyes were fixed on the mangled black helmet.

"I had to see."

She didn't cry. He'd expected her to cry, and he could sense deep grief which Rey herself would never admit to. When she'd composed herself, she gathered the mask, the robes, and the broken, gnarled remains of Ren's lightsaber. Together, they walked back to Snoke's quarters, where there was already a queue forming for those more than willing to surrender to the fearsome Resistance General.

Rey went to General Organa with her bundle and her pain. "This was all that was left." The General placed her hands on the clothes for a moment.

"The powerful ones fade. But only those who die in the Light." She breathed hard for a moment. "Take these if you want, or dispose of them." Her face was unreadable, and she locked into a cool expression as she looked up at another Stormtrooper waiting to join up with the Resistance.

"Ma'am," said the Stormtrooper, saluting.

"Take your helmet off, soldier." The General's voice was getting reedy. Finn was sure she had injuries which needed attention. But she remained standing and speaking to each trooper, welcoming each individual to the cause, over and over.

Finn gave them quick instructions, gathering teams to secure more areas of the base. They listened to him, but they also listened to the General, and he understood she was right. Had this woman ever chosen to become a Jedi, she'd be ruling the galaxy now.

Finn didn't see what Rey did with Ren's items until much, much later, when she airlocked the lot before their ship entered hyperspace on their way home.

* * *

There were thousands of Stormtroopers on the base. Several hundred remained loyal to the First Order. Being the last sane person on this dark moon, Poe did his best to put them under arrest. Skirmishes took place in corridors and messes and control centers. The many troopers who wanted to defect came to where the General graciously and quickly took their oaths of non-violence against the Republic, and those who seemed unsure only needed one look at Snoke's cooling body to come to the same conclusion.

Poe left the General's side when the fleet began to land, and a very tall, very armed, very angry Wookiee reached their location.

Finn and Rey had already taken teams out into the base. Poe joined them. Rey had taken Luke's green lightsaber from Snoke's corpse, and led the way down corridor after corridor, shouting challenges and swiftly-expiring offers of mercy. Just the sight of her face lit up by the eerie glow was enough for many of those they encountered to surrender to Finn's more friendly face. The legions of ex-Stormtroopers they gathered as they went, as well as the invading Resistance ground troops, soon took care of the rest.

Not everyone stayed to fight or agreed to surrender. Dozens of stolen First Order ships fled without engaging the Resistance fleet. Poe ordered the fleet to let them go. Even several of the landed Resistance ships were purloined by retreating soldiers who no longer gave their loyalty to anyone. Chewbacca was going to be furious when he found out, therefore Poe didn't intend to be the one who told him his beloved stolen ship had been stolen again.

General Hux was executed by his own former soldiers before he could be detained, but they did round up half a dozen of the big fish. There would be trials. Someone would be brought to justice.

They won the base. He supposed that was better than blowing it up.

"There are more bases," said Finn. They'd met up in the docking bay, resting for a moment against the little blue ship they'd arrived here in. "They'll have other transmitters. There are thousands of people still under the First Order's control."

"At least we know what we're doing tomorrow."

Poe was tired, and he had what looked like a resourcing nightmare in front of him. It was one thing to swear in all these guys. It was another to remember they had been shooting at each other yesterday, and some of them would still be loyal to the Order despite pretending to defect, and every one of them would need fed and watered and cleaned up after. Thousands and thousands of damn fluffkens pecking at his toes.

He asked Finn, "You seen Rey lately?"

"She's in the Command Suite breaking the weapons systems. It's making her feel better." The General was occupied right now by breaking the First Order's rank and file. Poe would sooner be suspended from the ceiling by his scrotum than point out the obvious to either one.

"You okay?" he asked Finn. "It's been a weird day." Six hours ago, the four of them had been in the middle of ship-propulsion Force sex, and Poe had been convinced any deeper commitment than that had to wait until after the war.

"Finding out the rest of the Stormtroopers think I'm some kind of messiah has been weird. Kylo Ren told me my helmet was busted and couldn't receive the subfrequency. That was all. I'm nothing special. That was almost the last thing he ever said to me." His face went through a few motions. He wasn't going to grieve for Ren any more than Poe would, but Finn was kind with other people's griefs. Other people were mourning even if they were both experts at covering up.

"Almost?"

"Then he called me a hero and yelled at me for being a lousy kisser."

Poe grabbed his face and tested that theory. "He was half-right."

"You know," Finn said, catching his breath and resting his hand comfortably against Poe's arms, "the war's basically over."

"Yeah, I know."

* * *

The old platitude about time healing all wounds was wrong. Old wounds just scarred over. The Resistance, with their swelled ranks, took on the First Order at stronghold after stronghold. Finn and each batch of new recruits knew locations and troop strengths. Rey knew high-level command codes and maps from carelessly-shared memories she never spoke of directly and never, ever forgot.

New enemies hatched from the warm ashes of the old. The General warned them this always happened, would always happen.

Rey gathered scars and learned to cover them over with bravado. Sometimes she twitched her right hand, feeling phantom pain from a burn she'd never experienced. Those around her assumed she'd been wounded in some past battle. She never told them differently, only led another charge, and another, wielding the yellow lightsaber she'd constructed. Only apprentices used borrowed weapons. A Jedi built her own.

Three years after the battle of Starkiller Base, after the fall of Lord Snoke, Rey found herself as the leader they didn't have of the new Republic's small but growing community of Force-sensitives. The old families, the ones who'd survived, began emerging from their hiding places through the galaxy. Just as the many lost souls who'd worn white armor came to Finn for guidance, so too did talented Force users and families with gifted children come to Rey as her name spread.

"You want to found a school?"

Leia, who held no official position in the new Republic but nonetheless ran most of it, had dismissed her staff. Rey had remained behind with a proposal. Out of long habit, she glanced at the table, but there hadn't been an ashtray sitting there in over two years.

"Not exactly." Rey had been thinking about this. "I'm not cut out for teaching. We've made contact with scores of potential Jedi who need to learn from each other. Instead of one school, gathering everyone in one place, picture dozens or even hundreds of small schools, with a single teacher and no more than a half dozen students. Some could focus on rediscovering the histories. Others would focus on fighting styles, or spellcasting. They could trade, students learning from a teacher steeped in mysticism spend a year with one dedicated to diplomacy and negotiation."

"You think that's there things went wrong? Too many in one place and one teacher spread too thin?" Her voice didn't catch when she spoke of the last school.

She shook her head. "I think one person shouldn't try to be everything to everyone. The teachers will learn from the students, and the more we share, the stronger we'll all be. And we can all watch one another." She'd spent a great deal of meditation time on the knot of this problem.

"You said you didn't want to teach."

"I don't. I'd like to learn. I want to visit each of the new schools as they start, and learn what I can, and share with the next. I also want to seek out more Force-sensitives, and show them where they can learn about themselves, and step in if I see them going dark."

"The headmistress?"

"I'm not much for titles." Rey thought the position more suited to her skills as scavenger, seeking out the best, and making good things from what she found. "I want to help people become better at who they can be."

"You do have that gift." Leia closed her eyes and tilted her head very slightly, as if she was listening to someone else in the room. A wry smile touched her mouth. "Orphans."

"Hm?"

She opened her eyes and fixed Rey with a stare that reached right into her soul. "Orphans, rather than fancy fluffkens."

"What?"

"It's strange. Ben never liked children, even when he was one."

And Rey knew she'd been caught out.

* * *

_Three years ago, on a moon far, far away_

Rey ran towards the transmitter room, passing confused people scurrying away. None approached her, either too caught up in their own issues, or else they saw her face. The door was ripped away by the force of the blast. The debris-strewn room choked her with dust. Two Stormtroopers and another in metallic armor lay dead on the ground. Further away, she found the crumpled figure in black, now coated with soot and scorched in too many places.

"Get up," she said, voice breaking. From the smoke, she told herself. "Get up now." She wouldn't touch him. If she touched him, she'd fracture.

The dark figured groaned. Slowly, he rolled onto his back. "Hurts."

"You've been burned. It's bad. If you'd been anyone else, you'd be dead. You'll live." His burns scorched through her, like her own skin crackling on her face. Her hand throbbed. "Get up now. I'm shielding your mind but they'll be here any second."

He coughed. "Who will?"

"Everyone. As far as the galaxy knows, you died a few minutes ago. You have to be dead now. So get up!" She'd tried to stay away, and she knew she couldn't. Rey grabbed him under his arm, helping him to his feet, mindful of the injuries. "Take your armor off."

"What's going on?" he asked, still confused and mildly concussed. His fingers were slow, too slow, and his right hand would never be the same. Rey swore, fumbling off his black armor, revealing the remains of the clothes they'd stolen days before. 

She wouldn't look in his eyes. "Snoke's dead. The First Order is done for. If you walk out alive from this room, it's going to go exactly like you said. You're going to be arrested, and you're going to be tried, and you will be found guilty, because you are guilty. Your trial will last for months. Every enemy you or your mother ever had will have their say, and between the two of you, that's most of the galaxy. Everything about who you are, and were, and your whole family, all of it will come out. The truth will destroy her though she won't say a word in your defense or her own. She'll make herself attend your execution, and every night for the rest of her life, she'll hear the blasts of the firing squad, or the crack of your neck as you're hanged. You're horrible, but she doesn't deserve that."

"Which 'she' are you talking about?"

Rey tossed his ruined clothes to the ground. "The only way to end this is for Kylo Ren to die today."

"So kill me." His breathing was labored, and his burns were bad. He had no weapon left, and not enough strength to fight her. She could rid the galaxy of him with one squeeze of her good hand in retribution for all he'd done.

And she'd fall to the Dark Side.

"Run away. You're good at that. Leave here and become someone else. I don't care who. Go raise fancy fluffkens for the eggs, or take care of orphans. You've helped make enough of them. You will never attempt to rejoin the Order, or contact your mother, or me, or any of us ever again. If you do, I will find you and kill you myself. You know I can."

He'd recovered somewhat, and that was good, because he showed the annoyed, haughty face that she hated, angry that she dared order him. The arrogance evaporated. His uninjured hand touched where hers ached, threading their fingers with a strangely innocent longing. "Come with me. We're stronger together. You know that."

She knew. They could flee this base, run away past the farthest stars, hide forever within shadows as all his many enemies searched for him without pause. They'd spend days or years or a lifetime never more than a breath away from each other. They would complete the unnatural merging of their minds, melted forever into a single powerful entity split within two bodies, no longer able to tell where they ended and where they began. Rey would annihilate the last of her own consciousness to extinguish the last of the horror that was his.

She pulled her hand away.

"I'm strong enough on my own. Go now. I'm going to stay and I'm going to lie to the kindest, best person I know, because he'll believe me and everyone else will believe him." She wouldn't cry. "Don't think for a moment this is about us. I hate you so much."

He lifted a helmet off the head of one of the dead troopers. The face underneath was young, his eyes staring into nothing. To her surprise, Kylo placed a hand over the face, closing the poor wretch's gaze. Then he donned the mask and took pieces of the man's white armor while Rey carefully arranged the broken black to appear like a spirit fading into the Force.

_"You know I can tell when you're lying."_

He was gone only a few moments before Finn ran into the room.

* * *

"You made a call," said Leia. "Sometimes it's good to find out you made the right one."

Orphans. Rey could picture him, glaring at small humans and Wookiees and Rodians, informing them their noodle-based art was subpar, and moaning as they climbed all over him asking to learn more Force tricks.

"How did you find him?"

"Oh, silly old Force ghosts love to gossip." Leia's face was caught in an expression Rey had learned to read over the years. She would never be happy, but she was at peace.

"You knew."

"Not that day, but I've known for a while. He's being watched. If there's a chance, any chance, that he'll go back to his old ways, I'll be the first to hear about it, and you'll be the next." She patted Rey's arm. "Until then, go start your schools."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Rey?"

"Yes?"

"This isn't advice. This is experience. You don't stop loving someone just because you know it's a bad idea and you think you should. Beating yourself up over how you feel is a sucker's game."

The gentle rebuke startled her. "A Jedi isn't supposed to form attachments, ma'am."

"That's what the old Jedi thought, and they were wrong, and their mistake destroyed them. Forming attachments is what makes us people, even when it hurts. Maybe especially when it hurts. You won't find solace in cutting yourself off from your feelings, but you'll find plenty in letting yourself feel more. Live your life, kid. You can love as many people as you can stand, but you only get one lifetime to do it in." Leia turned away and Rey knew she'd been politely dismissed.

Finn waited for Rey outside with a worried face and a quick kiss. "What did she say?"

"She said yes. I wasn't sure, since the last school went so wrong, but she likes the idea of all the different schools."

"You're going to be busy."

"When are we not?" She sighed. "When's Poe due back?"

"Tonight. He sent a transmission they'd be late with the shipment but he'll be home later."

"Then I won't see you tonight, but if you've not got plans, you and I could see each other tomorrow night before I ship out." She'd already decided on the route she wanted to take to scour for new potential students. She'd located the records Captain Bridger left behind him. It would be an honor to continue his work.

"Tomorrow's good." He took her hand as they walked. "You know, this would be easier to organize if you'd just move in with us." There were other complaints underneath, but they'd already had those conversations. Rey didn't intend to get married, and between them, they already had thousands of children to worry about. If Finn wanted more, he had a perfectly nice boyfriend who was much easier to persuade than his stubborn girlfriend. "Besides, BB-8 misses you when you're not around. There's nothing sadder than a little mopey ball."

"Well, if BB-8 misses me...."

"Rey."

She hadn't needed for the General to point out she was holding back. Rey knew the shapes of her own fears and the shadows of her own past. Feel too deeply, care too much, love too hard, and she'd be left alone again. Better to keep her own end of this affectionate yet casual. Better not to allow herself to be hurt.

Fear helped her in battle, used with careful moderation, but it was no way to live the rest of her life.

"How about this? I'll look into moving in next door as soon as that apartment comes open. I'm going to be traveling off-world more. It'd be nice to have somewhere to come home to." She squeezed his hand. "You can tell BB-8."

"I'll do that."

The schools popped up over the following months and years, like doorflowers creeping their green shoots out of the sand after an unexpected rain, unsure if they'd live long enough to flourish. Even on the edge of the Outer Rim, out near Wild Space, more Jedi schools emerged. Rey visited each in turn, bringing new students, following leads to find yet more talented minds, young children and aging magicians. "We can learn together," she told each one, and she stayed for a time to pick up new skills and pass along old knowledge.

Some schools chose formal studies, while others were no more than a Master tutoring a single Padawan. Rey took her ship and she found them, and she learned what she could, and she moved on. She kept her list of names and places, only known to her, and to her closest friends, and to Leia who regardless would have found a way to read it.

Finn sent her transmissions every day when she was gone, describing his latest struggles with his newest recruits, and anticipating which ship he was qualifying to fly next, and saying that he missed her. Rey sent back much the same, and she promised not to be gone long. She loved it out here, able to open her mind and feel the presence of trillions, more, out in the wide galaxy. When they were together, he often asked if she was lonely. She could never make him understand that no, when she was in space, she was in the center of everyone and everything. Rey would listen to the great wordless surge of lifeforms surrounding her in every direction, and she felt she almost understood everything.

The new Republic had spies, because everyone had spies. Leia sent her more leads, and the names of other schools growing independently of the loose network.

One transmission came while she was out between star systems. "What's to stop a school from embracing the Dark Side?"

Rey sent back, "Me."

After the question, on a list of dozens of schools discovered and quietly monitored by Republic spies, Rey read the name "Owen Antilles." According to the report, the scarred veteran of a teacher was more well-versed in Jedi lore and training than anyone else the spy had ever heard of, but his past was a locked room. The school's focus was on the importance, not of Light or Dark, but of perfect balance on the edge of the blade.

Always, Rey felt the thread of thought in the back of her mind: sometimes amusement, often annoyance, occasionally pain from an old wound or a new scrape. Many, many times, she heard a snatch of music, or saw an image of some small child with fur or scales attempting a new trick.

She closed her eyes now, and she listened.

_"It is a blue sphere. Not red. Not green. Not ORANGE, Jorjanna. Blue. Show me a blue sphere."_

She didn't say anything, not to chide him on his terrible teaching techniques, nor to tease him about starting a school. Non-interference went both ways. She could tap into his pattern of thought, dialing in like a frequency on an old transmitter, to listen at his exasperation changing to deep pride as a little green girl created a perfect blue sphere in front of herself.

_"Good work. Do it again."_

Sometimes, in the midst of a meditation at a new school, or during a meeting with Leia's staff, or half-asleep in her bed alone or with Finn sprawled next to her, she felt the brush of a familiar mind. He peeked into her life, not commenting, not altering what he found, not inveigling her to run away to Wild Space. He was just listening, leaving behind him only a faint trace of satisfaction at finding her alive and well and happy. She sensed he was not displeased to find the same held true for those whom she cared about and whom he'd never admit he did as well.

Rey marked down the rest of the names and details onto her list of schools. Then she scrubbed all mention of Antilles from the records, including the world he was on, the number of students, everything. She hit Delete on the final record, removing the last official trace of him from the galaxy.

But she memorized the coordinates first. She might need to steal that ship again someday.

end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to the people who've been here through the posting. The story was written before I started to post, but the editing process had a great deal of help due to your feedback. Thank you!


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